


Dying is easy, living is harder

by BoleynQueen



Series: Outside of Panem [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: 70th Hunger Games, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Female Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup is Annie, POV Astrid Hofferson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 23,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24494782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoleynQueen/pseuds/BoleynQueen
Summary: Where Panem had built something new and warped from the ashes calling the old system insufficient, the rest of the world tried to recreate what they lost.Annie Haddock with her dual citizenship in Europe and Panem was screwed from a young age. When she gets reaped in the Hunger Games, she’s not surprised. Not really. Everyone else is.Astrid and the rest of the Dragon Riders watch Annie fight in the games. They had no idea what they were in for.
Relationships: Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Astrid Hofferson
Series: Outside of Panem [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774354
Comments: 18
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

It was a Tuesday morning like any other that turned Astrid’s world upside down. It started off normal. She ate breakfast in a rush, took the bus and sat beside Heather as they waited for Mrs. Reynolds, their english teacher, to arrive. They chatted about Heather’s upcoming party which will be held after their track meet. 

In fact, it was going off on a better than normal start as Snotlout hadn’t arrived yet and it looked like he wasn’t going to be in class at all for the day.

Mrs. Reynolds entered the class and immediately the students hushed. They could sense something was off. She was pale faced, accompanied by the school’s principal and a downcast Snotlout. 

Her first thought was _what had he done now?_ His shoulders were hunched, he wouldn’t look up to meet the questioning and slightly excited eyes of the twins who, like her, were wondering what prank he had attempted and got caught red handed baking up. It had to be good to leave him like this.

They had never seen him this, well, shaken. _Just how much trouble is he in for?_ After a prank gone wrong, he usually blustered for a bit until his father showed up and he then begged for forgiveness. He wasn’t this… solemn.

To her surprise, Mrs. Reynolds placed a comforting hand on Snotlout’s shoulder and simply guided him to his seat. 

Principal Higgins finally spoke, his voice cutting the tension like a sharp knife.

“Some of you may know that your classmate Annie Haddock is a dual citizen of Europe and Panem’s district 4.”

_What the hell does Annie have to do with this?_ She snuck a look at Snotlout, Annie’s cousin, and a sinking feeling started building in her stomach. What could her dual citizenship in the infamous and isolated nation warrant this class interruption? The principal continued his speech in a grim voice paying no attention to the raised hand of Fishlegs.

“Due to this technicality, she has been... eligible for a vile show in Panem called the Hunger Games for the last six years. She’s been making yearly visits for the durations of the games to her hometown in District Four.” Higgins scowled, losing control for a few seconds, letting his real feelings of disgust towards the Capitol of Panem through. 

She couldn’t blame him, everyone feels similarly towards that nation but she wished he would hurry up. What does Annie’s trips have to do with this? They had all already been aware, at least the old gang is, that she had left for Panem. She usually comes back two or three weeks later to a mountain of homework and a few tests.

“As she’s eighteen now, this was meant to be Annie’s last year having to return but…” he broke off, bringing a hand to cover his eyes. He dragged it down to his mouth where it rested for a second before he took a deep breath and continued once more.

“Annie Haddock was nominated as a tribute for the Hunger Games.”

It was a Tuesday like any other in Astrid’s life, only it wasn’t because Annie Haddock had been marked for death.

***

Growing up, they had called themselves the Dragon Riders. It had been her, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Annie. At the age of five, they used to play pretend but where others would play act family, they would pretend to be dragon riders. Their parents started nicknaming them that as a joke and it stuck.

She couldn’t remember a time before Annie had been in her life. All of her earliest memories contained the clumsy girl who couldn't help but get into trouble at every turn. The misadventures they had all been dragged into because of Annie’s inclination towards accidentally starting chaos was legendary. The twins loved it.

One big adventure that always brought a smile to her face was the time they built an ant farm in Annie’s room when they were six.

Tuffnut had stepped on an ant hill. Ruffnut and Snotlout had laughed at the swarm of ants running around in panic but Annie had cried and cried over the insects losing their home to Tuffnut’s sneakers.

Astrid and Fishlegs ended up helping her gather as many of the ants as possible into a box before bringing it to her room to “give them a home after destroying their old one”. They hid it right behind her wastebasket, and it stayed hidden for three days. The twins and Snotlout ended up bringing candy, half a donut, a slice of bread and a chicken nugget to feed the ants.

Stoick found out by walking into his daughter’s room only to find her cousin in the middle of peeing into the box to “water the ants” as he had explained. She still can’t remember the logic behind that one.

Stoick’s face was so red, she had been scared he would explode but when she explained it all to her parents later that night, her father had been unable to keep a straight face and her mother had explained through her cackling that the ants would do just fine without being peed on.

She remembered the first time Annie had needed to go to Panem. How her red eyes and freckles had jumped out against her pale, scared face. She was staying close to Gobber and Stoick as if she would never see them again. She was just twelve and Panem wouldn’t even let her father come with her! It had been arranged that she would be staying with her grandfather, the mayor of District Four during her time there. 

Astrid had been so angry that her closest friend was missing weeks of the end of sixth grade because of that stupid technicality of her being born in Panem but seeing Annie’s shaking arms and clenched fists, she had forced herself to calm down and to hold her hand reassuringly.

“When you come home, you’re going to have to tell me everything!” She tried to add some excitement to her voice as she smiled the fakest smile that ever crossed her face. “We’ll have to have a sleepover right away, just the two of us. And I'll tell you everything that you missed at school.”

Astrid turned expectantly towards Stoick. Under the gaze of the two little girls, his tired eyes softened a fraction and his face relaxed slightly under that giant beard that hid his scowls and smiles.

“I suppose missing one night more with my daughter when she comes home is a small price to pay in the long run.”

Tightening her grip on Astrid’s hand, Annie had turned towards Astrid.

“I’ll be holding you to that,” she said, relief making way for the familiar glint that warned of chaos to come in her eye.

“It’s a dragon rider promise,” Astrid held out her pinky confidently. “And you know that can’t be broken.”

A crooked smile crossed Annie’s lips at their coined phrase and she crossed her pinky with her own.

If only Astrid had known it would be the last time she ever saw that expression on Annie’s face.

“Annie Haddock was an intelligent student with a bright future ahead of her. She had intended to go to CalTech in engineering, the world was truly her oyster. She will be dearly missed.” Principal Higgins’ voice brought her to the present. Mrs. Reynold let out a sob. “If you have any questions, Mrs. Reynold’s is here to answer them. I will be announcing this on the intercom in two hours for the rest of the school but I thought it would be best to give you all, her classmates, some warning in advance. Once again, towards her friends and family I’m so sorry for your loss.”

Leaving them all to stew in their stunned silence, he walked out of the classroom. 

“Mrs. Reynolds?” Heather raised her hand slowly and hesitantly. “What are the Hunger Games exactly?”

“Are you kidding me, Heather! How do you not know this already?” Snotlout angrily said. As surprised as she and everyone else was at Snotlout getting frustrated with one of the prettiest girls in school, she couldn’t blame him. 

One of the only things that is known so far about Panem is how isolated it is, its advanced technology and that it holds death matches between the children of the districts every year on live television. Ten years ago, someone hacked into Panem’s televisions and posted a five minute video from the Hunger Games on YouTube. It exposed the event for what it is, brutal murder of children by children. It went viral and while she had never seen it, she knows that it was so gory and brutal that it got banned within hours. 

Not much is known on how the Hunger Games work, if they make them duel to the death one at a time or just drop them off somewhere without letting them leave until just one child is left alive. Pretty much everyone has heard about the event, if only to condemn Panem’s actions while gossiping. It fascinates people too as who isn’t just a bit fascinated with death? 

It’s pretty unbelievable that Heather hasn’t heard about it before. Granted, the Dragon Riders know just a bit more than most because of Annie being forced to return to District Four just to watch it.

Mrs. Reynold’s wiped her eyes. 

“The Hunger Games are what makes Panem so infamous. Every year, they nominate children between the ages of twelve and eighteen from each of their twelve districts and pit them against one another in an arena where they fight to the death. It’s absolutely disgusting!” She lets out another small sob against her will. “At the end, only one survives. And now Annie has been nominated in her district!”

***

“There has to be some way to fight this and get Annie out of there!” Astrid scowled as she scrolled through forums that might have an idea on how to get someone political asylum.

“She has dual citizenship and she lives in Europe! How can this be even legal?” Fishlegs questioned.

Snotlout rubbed at his eyes viciously. “We’ve already tried that. Uncle Stoick has been on the phone for two days. Annie’s mom is from Panem and she was born there. Apparently, the only way Uncle Stoick was allowed to bring her home was if he agreed that she wouldn’t be exempt from the games. The only thing that he’s gotten them to agree to since she was... nominated was to open up the channels so that he would be able to watch the Hunger Games!”

Astrid clenches her fist. How cruel. A father is pleading that they don’t murder his only child and they turn a deaf ear, instead they give him the ability to watch her last moments. He won’t be able to resist watching.

“Do you think Annie’s death will be really bloody?” Tuffnut asked.

“Why does everyone think that Annie is going to die?” Ruffnut asked. “There’s supposed to always be a survivor. Who knows? Maybe Annie will turn out to be a vicious killer and make it to the end.”

Astrid’s mind immediately goes to the little girl crying over ants. 

A vicious killer. Yeah right.

***

Stoick opened his door none too gently as if preparing to yell at whoever is on the other side. 

Then he saw it was them. His daughter’s childhood friends. Emphasis on childhood. He looks at them in silence. He still looks like he’s thinking of slamming the door in their faces.

“So you’ve heard?” He finally grunts. “This one’s told you, hasn’t he?” He nods in the direction of Snotlout. Snotlout nervously looks away.

“Yes,” Astrid replies, at a loss for words. For some reason, she feels the need to protect Snotlout from his uncle’s wrath. Probably because of some residue of childhood fondness towards the arrogant football quarterback. She hurries to add, “The school announced it after Snotlout’s father explained the situation. I’m so sorry for your…”

“Loss, yes I know. Except my daughter isn’t dead yet.” He scowls. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to figure out Capitol TV to watch my daughter struggle for survival.”

He goes to close the door and before he could do so, she cries out without thinking, “Wait!”

Looking at her in exasperation, he asks her what it is that she wants. 

“Can we watch with you?” She blurts out. Shit.

Stoick glares at them in disbelief. How else could he react, she thought miserably. A couple of teenagers who haven’t come by his house in years do so just to watch his daughter die alone on the big screen.

She’s never had such a case of foot in mouth syndrome before. She’s always been so very confident in her decisions and choices that uncertainties isn’t something she’s ever entertained. But she’s eighteen, how is she supposed to know the right course of actions concerning this. Death. Murder for entertainment. Whatever you wish to call it.

“This is my daughter’s life. You used to be friends. I don’t know what type of sick joke you think it is…” he began. He’s probably thinking this is some dare the twins put them up to after learning why Snotlout will be missing school next week.

“It’s not a joke,” Fishlegs flounders for a bit as he thinks about what he is going to say. “We just don’t want to never find out what happened to her. Snotlout said that everyone watching will have to sign an NDA.” He trailed off.

Silence overtakes the group. Stoick’s angry silence saying everything his voice isn’t. The children’s muteness coming from a place of awkwardness and just _not knowing what to do._ The twins have been forbidden from speaking in advance by Astrid as they have no tact which will not be helpful in their pre planned mission.

All Astrid knows is that if someone doesn’t say anything and breaks the silence that is thick with tension, they won’t be allowed to watch. To ever know. Annie’s death will forever be a mystery. So she breaks the silence.

“Please,” her voice comes out as a pleading croak. “I can’t just…” _not know what happened. Have my last memory of Annie be her sitting on the other side of the classroom. Our last conversation months ago, and not really a conversation. Just me yelling at her for being a pushover and letting the twins and Snotlout get away with calling her names and pushing her in the hallway._

“Please,” she begs once more.

He must see the desperation in her eyes that is reflected in his own because he doesn’t throw them out. 

All he says is, “Fine.”

***

The twins argue back and forth over who can get the last pigs in a blanket that Fishlegs mother dropped off for their first viewing as the woman from Panem, Ollana Jennings, twittered over their horrid manners. The minute they entered the house, Ollana as she asked to be called had made them sign an NDA before they were told anything.

Snotlout had then explained that apparently they were going to watch a rerun of the “reaping” and later tonight, they were going to watch the opening ceremony. The reaping was the event where the children get nominated and Astrid is not going to lie, she’s curious of how these people choose which children will die. Ollana had attempted to explain that the opening ceremony was some type of parade but they didn’t get it.

For the most part, Ollana had the good sense to stay out of Stoick’s way. They all were. If she didn’t, Astrid has a feeling it wouldn’t end pretty. That’s all she would credit the lady, though. In the hour she’s known her, she’s shown herself to be vapid, have no self awareness, and have no clue why they are horrified by the Hunger Games. She’s had to restrain herself from punching the woman multiple times for fear of being kicked out of the house.

“Alrighty, everyone! The reaping reruns will begin!” Ollana clapped her hands in joy as she giggled.

They all sat in tense silence as they glued their eyes to the television screen waiting for it to start.

The screen flickers to pictures and videos of the Capitol and district citizens smiling as a voice starts narrating the history of Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts that brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. The screen then starts showing pictures of war as the deep voice continues, then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. The Treaty of Treason brought new laws that guaranteed peace and a yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never be repeated.

Fishlegs must be going nuts with finally knowing the history behind the games, she thinks in the back of her mind.

“So… the reason they kill kids who don’t have anything to do with rebellion is as a reminder? Really?” Ruffnut scrunches her nose, saying what they are all thinking. The reasoning behind this is so stupid. Why punish those who are not involved, be done with it. It’s been 70 years. If anything wouldn’t these games have incited rebellion? Why hasn’t anybody done anything yet, Astrid clenched her fist. She wanted to hit something. Annie is going to be murdered on camera for something she has nothing to do with.

Ollana shushes her.

“They’re going to explain the rules!”

The rules are simple, the voice continues. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, the tributes, to participate. The twenty four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland.

Over a period of several days, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins.

Gobber placed a comforting hand on Stoick’s shoulder but Annie’s father shrugged it off with an unreadable look in his eye.

It finally ends the presentation of pictures on one last picture of a young man standing victorious, a golden shroud on his head as he is showered in cheers. The Victor receives a life of ease and luxury and their district will be given a plethora of food from the Capitol for the following year.

The host for the evening presenting each reaping is a garish man all in green. And all in green as in green hair, eyebrows, eyes and lips. He looks like a scary human leprechaun hybrid. His name is Caesar Flickerman and he starts off the reaping in District One with a large excited smile.

Children gathered from the youngest children at the front and the eldest towards the back as if held hostage by the soldiers in white surrounding them. Contrary to what she thought, not all people from Panem follow the same fashion choices that Ollana and Caesar do. Just those from the Capitol.

A woman in a huge pink wig who was obviously from the Capitol plucks out a piece of paper from a large bowl before calling out a girl’s name. A tall blonde girl who looks like some kind of irresistible goddess comes to the front and then the same thing repeats with an even taller, well built, boy who was the picture of athletic perfection.

Astrid was stupefied.

“This is how you choose who becomes a tribute? By picking their names out of a bowl!” She cries out in incredulity. That’s for picking who’s hitting the piñata at a kids birthday party first. Not for choosing who’s going to die.

“This is a fair way so that there’s no discrimination, it’s all the odds,” the Capitolite defended. 

Ruffnut nudges Astrid roughly in the arm with her elbow. _You can’t lose it now,_ the look in her eyes said. She stiffly turns back to the screen.

District Two called for two youngsters that she pitied but not for long as two teens their age volunteered.

“Can they do that? Is that even allowed?” Snotlout asked. “It feels like cheating, I’m just saying!”

“Of course they can!” Ollana cried. “We wouldn’t want to deny anyone the chance to bring honour to their district!”

Astrid looked away from her in disgust. She probably would’ve looked highly on the volunteering duo for sacrificing themselves at the place of letting twelve year olds go in the games but it was clear that they were looking forward to this. The girl has sleek black hair that goes halfway down her back and a manic look in her eyes that reminds Astrid of Dagur, Heather’s deranged half brother who spends half his time in institutions for the mentally ill. The boy looks to be well over six feet tall and as if he could crush a man’s skull with a single hand. She imagined this boy meeting Annie in the arena. Her skull would prove no challenge for him.

The pair from District Three were slight and not very threatening so Astrid relaxed and then immediately felt guilty. The fact that they weren’t fighters meant that Annie could fight them off in the arena but that they couldn’t defend themselves against the others.

Then came District Four.

Astrid tried to find Annie in the crowd but there were too many children. Then the escort called for Annie Cresta in the crowd. At first, Astrid thought she misheard and the others did too.

“That’s not Annie’s last name. There’s been a mistake. You’ve taken the wrong person!” Fishlegs cried, hopeful eyes turned towards Ollana who fidgeted awkwardly as she thought over her response. Too late. Stoick did it for her.

“Annie’s mother’s last name is Cresta.”

That small brief piece of hope died.

Like a game of Where’s Waldo, they could all finally see Annie as the crowd made space around her, repelled as if she had just told them she had mono. 

Something caught in Astrid’s throat. They could all clearly catch the look of pure panic on Annie’s face as she froze. Two of the soldiers in white, _peacekeepers_ Ollana’s voice whispered, dragged her out of the crowd and marched her to the front. She couldn’t have looked more like prey if she tried. _It’s middle school all over again._

Before the next tribute of her district’s name could be even called out, someone volunteered with an eager grin. His name was Percy Locksley. He couldn’t come off any more differently from Annie if he tried. He started a small playful conversation with the Capitol women full of quips and sent out perfect grins to the camera. 

_How brainwashed are they?_ Astrid raged.

Fishlegs’ face was green. 

“I’m just gonna go to the bathroom,” he hurried out.

Both the boy and girl from District Five and Six had similar reactions to the one Annie had when her name was called. _I guess that means not everyone there is crazy,_ Astrid thought.

The boy from District Seven had a feral look about him that made her skin crawl. The boy from District Eight had to be only twelve and she only guessed that because he had to have his name in the pool when in fact he looked all of seven years old. 

Fishlegs who had just returned from the bathroom went right back in. Snotlout didn’t even bother making fun of him which just said everything about how worried he was. An interesting phenomenon that she noticed numbly was that each district just looked poorer and poorer as they were called. And each tribute looked less and less trained for the Hunger Games and more and more like the starved children from third world countries that they see pictures of history books.

No tribute really caught the eye after the twelve year old. There was a boy from District Nine who had flaming red hair. A beautiful dark skinned girl with huge dark eyes from District Eleven and finally a skinny dark haired girl from District Twelve who cried openly when her name was called.

“It looks like we’ve got quite a few interesting tributes to look out for in the 70th Hunger Games!” Caesar Flickerman’s green lips stretched into a wide smile. “Don’t go anywhere folks because the opening ceremony will be taking place live in two hours!”

Gobber turned off the television.

***

The opening ceremony began with a bang. Literally. Drums announced the  
carriages of the tributes as they were pulled in a large circle by horses.

They were dressed in costumes, the like only seen in parades and not even comparable, these ones seemed a hundred times more expensive than any homemade parade costume.

District One was covered in fur and jewels and reminded her slightly of a show from before the apocalypse of 2030 called RuPaul’s drag race. They watched it in history class once. The outfits were extravagant and so very extra. District Two was dressed like Roman soldiers of old in gold. District Three was wrapped in wires like a Christmas tree is wrapped in garland. 

“Oh, she looks beautiful,” Ollana cried out as District Four came out.

Astrid’s breath caught in her throat. Annie and her partner looked beautiful standing upon their chariot. She couldn’t even recognize her childhood friend. 

Their skin had an otherworldly golden shine to it that matched Annie’s sea green and blue makeup that made her eyes pop. Her hair had a sleek look to it and when she moved, it shimmered from blue to green in the light. 

“What the hell is she wearing?” Stoick grounded out. 

Annie and Percy were clearly in coordinated outfits just like the rest of the tributes. Except theirs was just a bit more confusing than the others. Unless their costume’s designer was trying to send out a message that less is more because that’s all she can get from it. 

Percy was wearing just a tiny golden underwear with a confidence that would make Snotlout jealous and held out a trident as if he was Poseidon himself.

Annie was in a skimpy bikini of a bluish green colour that matched her makeup. Over that, Annie had been draped in golden nets. One was wrapped around her waist to fall like a skirt, another had been wrapped thinly around the top piece of her outfit and knotted between her breasts. 

“The question isn’t that. It’s why isn’t she wearing more?” Gobber corrected looking more than a little annoyed.

Snotlout’s eyes were bugging out as he watched Annie wave at the Capitol citizens that were cheering for her. Even blowing a few kisses their way. 

Fishlegs fidgeted a bit and adjusted his pillow to cover his lap.

“No way! She should take some off! Annie looks smoking!” Tuffnut exclaimed enthusiastically. Ruffnut punched him in the arm.

“Ouch! What was that for?” He cried out.

“For being a moron, moron!”

“You’re the moron,” he shoved her back.

“Look at her hair!” Yelled out Caesar giddily. “I know what I want to do with my own next!” He joked.

“Caesar, I don't know about you but District Four’s costumes are reminding me of another victor from their district,” Claudius Templesmith said.

“Hmm. I see what they did there! District Four has made quite the power play! I would just like to remind the audience how their youngest and most famous victor, Finnick Odair won the Hunger Games.”

The screen abruptly left the commentators for a girl trapped in a net hanging from a tree and struggling to get free. A gorgeous boy who looked fourteen at most with sea green eyes and hair the colour of bronze jumped out of the bushes and handling a trident with expertise, threw it through her chest.

“Fuck,” Ruffnut said, thoroughly distracted from her squabble with her brother. They watched in horror as blood spilled out of the wound as he wrenched the weapon out. It dripped down onto the floor like rain, staining the net red.

The camera went back to Annie wrapped in nets as Percy wrapped his arm around her shoulders and lifted the trident high in the air. All Astrid could see was that trident going through her friend’s stomach. 

The crowd went nuts.

“District Four! Bold as ever!”

***  
“Uncle Stoick called last night. Tomorrow night at 7, there will be some type of scores where they grade the tribute on deadliness or something,” Snotlout said with a clenched jaw. His black eye stood out against his pale skin.

Ever since Annie… well, this whole thing started a few days ago, he’s been getting into more and more fights at school. The teachers aren’t punishing him for his tantrums because they understand where he’s coming from. They’ve been after him though to go to the school therapist. Astrid can’t even blame Snotlout, she’s been acting the same. 

Anyone who mentions Annie and the Hunger Games at school ended up on the other side of her temper. She even yelled at Heather at one point and she’s her best friend. They haven’t spoken since their big fight. Fishlegs has been distracted at school, unable to answer questions in class and looking ready to cry at any moment's notice. The twins have been subdued and that says it all, really.

It might sound wrong but she wants time to speed up to the games because at least by then, they wouldn’t be destroying their reputations and bonds at school. As they will be watching the Hunger Games, the Dragon Riders will be taken out of school for a few weeks as it continues during school hours.

“Okay, we will be there after dinner then.” Astrid replied.

***

“Ollana,” she gentled her voice so that her dislike for the wigged bitch didn’t show. “Why do the tributes need scores?”

“So that we can know who to sponsor, of course!” Ollana laughed loudly.

“Like an AA sponsor?” asked Tuffnut with a dumb look on his face.

“What? No!” she cried. “A sponsor can send gifts to the tributes when they are in the arena. Like food, weapons and medicine. That way if the tribute you sponsored ends up victorious, you get bragging rights for helping him win! It’s lots of fun!”

“That’s… great.” Gobber said in a surprised voice. Astrid watched as he and Stoick traded a look. She can already see the wheels turning in their heads of what that can mean for Annie.

“I’m sponsoring the girl from District Two,” Ollana smiled, oblivious. And Stoick was back to glaring at her and if looks could kill… well, she wouldn’t be going back to her precious Capitol. Ever.

“How do they get scored?” Ruffnut demanded.

“Nobody knows.” At their questioning looks, she continued. “They spend an hour alone with the Gamemakers showing them their skills and if they impress them, they can get as high as a twelve. But nobody has ever gotten a twelve, the highest anyone’s ever reached is a 10. I think there might be a few 11’s out there..” she trailed off, shrugging.

The tension and feeling of hopelessness at not being able to do anything was back. Annie was, to be blunt, terrible at sports and able to show up the clumsiest of people. The only physical activity she ever excelled in was swimming. She was a complete pacifist. How could she impress these Gamemakers when she’s never even held a gun? Even Gobber had no faith that she could do this.

Astrid just hoped that in the six years they… lost touch, she’s gained some type of skill in karate or something.

The Capitol Anthem began catching their attention. Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith welcomed them back and after a quick recap of the reapings and the Opening Ceremony that lasted about ten minutes, it began.

Starting from District One once more, it showed the picture of the boy, Dulce was his name she learned, and then showed a score of nine. Amity, the blonde bombshell, ended up with an eight. Both from District Two got tens. Astrid and Ruffnut exchanged a look.

Astrid tried to focus again as the District Three boy appeared on screen, followed by a seven. The girl from his district got a five.

“Here we go!” Gobber rubbed his hands together.

Astrid stared fiercely at the screen, willing it to hurry up so that she could learn Annie’s score.

Percy flashed across the screen, smiling brilliantly and blonde hair perfectly coiffed followed by his score of ten. 

Shit. She just hoped Annie hadn’t pissed him off. She has a habit of doing that. Since they are district,p partners, he has to have noticed her.

Annie’s face materializes onto the screen, dark hair still shimmering between blue and green under light. The tension thickened, before the screen showed a large silver number eight on the screen. 

“Yes!” Yelled Snotlout, jumping out of his chair. Fishlegs smiled slightly, looking on the verge of tears as he has since this has started. Astrid sat frozen in disbelief on her own.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut started dancing and gyrating in the living room while Gobber laughed at Ollana’s miffed face at the way they were behaving.

“C’mon Astrid! Let’s celebrate! This is amazing! ” Ruffnut gestured to her to come over but Astrid couldn’t. She couldn’t celebrate because what type of secret skill did Annie even have that would warrant an eight?

Fishlegs suggested they should return to the scores to see how everyone else does. The creepy boy from District Seven, Grayson, came on and he received a nine. Then the girl from District Seven scored a six, and then Annie frowned when the young boy from District Eight scored a four. The boy from District Nine scored an eight while his partner received a six. It continued on a similar vein of average to below average scores before finally ending on both District Twelve tributes scoring fives.

“What do you think Annie did that impressed them?” Astrid asks.

“I bet she did something with archery! We did some of that at summer camp, right?” Ruffnut answers, mimicking letting go of an arrow on a string.

“No way! Annie was terrible at the archery station! She almost hit Fishlegs, remember?” Tuffnut swung an arm around the large boy. “She probably did something with poison. That’s all memory!”

“They did get a few days of training,” Fishlegs says nervously. “Considering that she’s not the best at sports, I think that it’s most likely that she learnt some survival tricks when training. Or that she found out about some natural poisons!” he added hastily.

“What do you think, uncle?” Snotlout turned to the man eagerly.

“I don’t know,” he says with a clenched jaw. “Gobber, do you have any idea what she could’ve done to impress the Gamemakers?”

_Oh._ Astrid realized suddenly. _Not knowing is bothering him too._

Stoick Haddock is a diplomat. Because his job is essentially traveling for weeks or months at a time to talk to people all over the world, he often leaves his daughter at Gobber’s. This led to him not being all up to date on her life, who she was still friends with, her grades, or if she took up some secret hobby since dropping drawing. It was something that had frustrated Annie even when they were twelve. But she wouldn’t have been born if not for that job, as it is what led him to going to Panem and meeting Valka Cresta, the mayor of District Four’s daughter.

“Maybe she invented something on the spot, she’s a good mechanic, you know that,” Gobber shrugged helplessly. He had no idea. Stoick looked away grumpily.

***

“Look who is here with Marina Eastwick! Finnick Odair, victor of the 65th Hunger Games!” Claudius announced.

The camera showed the grown up version of the bronze haired killer that they saw nearly a week ago, even more handsome at twenty (she estimates that’s his age) with a highlighter blue haired woman with light green skin hanging off his arm as they took their seats.

“Hello gorgeous,” Ruffnut licked her lips. _Had she forgotten what she had last seen him do?_

It hit her out of nowhere, she finally remembered how she knew that name. _Annie…_

She had returned from her first trip to District Four, quiet in a way she had not been before and carrying an air of sadness everywhere she went. She had overheard Stoick at the time debating with her parents and Spitelout if he should send her to therapy. In the end, they decided against it as she wouldn’t even be able to speak honestly about what she had seen. Either way, getting information out of her was like pulling teeth. She barely said anything other than her grandfather was nice and her district was by the beach. Lots of fishing and swimming.

Snotlout, after many days of needling, got her to spill something on the Games. She admitted that it was a boy from her district who won, Finnick Odair. The twins thought it was so cool as children often do in that chaotic way of theirs but Annie had just retreated further into that shell of hers.

Now, after seeing just a glimpse of what Annie’s first Hunger Games looked like, she could see how that traumatized the twelve year old. But back then Astrid remembers not understanding her anymore. She had felt helpless in a way that she hated because Annie wasn’t her sarcastic self any longer and it was hard to be friends with someone who was such a downer all the time. She started avoiding her, the Dragon Riders did the same with Fishlegs, the last to leave. He always had such a crush on her.

The following year, she left for Panem with no friends waiting for her back home.

Weirdly enough, the Hunger Games has been what has brought the gang (well, most of it) back together in a way they haven’t hung out for years.

Middle school meant clicks and while most of them had gravitated towards sports, Fishlegs was the first to break apart of the group and join a Dungeon and Dragon club. This led to them being embarrassed when being seen with him and history repeated itself. Annie was a loner that quickly became a target for bullies. While Snotlout and the twins ignored what was happening at first, by the end of middle school they were the ones leading the charge. Astrid herself began distancing herself as she befriended Heather on the track team. While she still hung out with Ruffnut while playing soccer, she didn’t see the point in speaking to the boys when she couldn’t remember why she had been friends with them in the first place other than the convenience of living nearby.

“It’s starting,” Ollana hurriedly sat in her seat as she clapped her hands excitedly. Astrid rolled her eyes.

Caesar welcomed the audience and introduced what they were all here for with a small speech that got the crowd roaring and on their feet before announcing District One’s Dulce.

It sickened her to hear the tributes talk of how in awe with the Capitol they were as if it was just another holiday away from home. They talked about the food, the clothes and how they hoped to win because that meant that they could come back. The crowd cheered as they left and then the next tribute would come on. 

Sadie of District Two stood out by talking about how she can’t wait to get into the arena and show everyone what she’s got with just enough bloodthirsty crazy in her eyes.

Finally, it was Annie’s turn. And she had to know why the fashion in the Capitol was so bad when they had such good designers. Annie looked beautiful and she could see Fishlegs agreed with her as he watched his first crush in awe.

She was dressed in a glittery dark mermaid gown. Astrid’s eyes are immediately caught by the black velvet bodice of the dress that shows off a figure she hadn’t known her childhood friend had. As she moved towards the stage, the skirt let out ripples of green and dark purple as if they were the reflection of the moon on the sea at night. The gown went all the way to her feet and she even had a small train. She looked like the embodiment of the ocean on a romantic and mysterious night. The outfit was complete with a simple black choker around her throat.

“She doesn’t look like herself,” Stoick says stonily as Annie reaches Caesar.

“It is a bit too mature, don’t you think?” Gobber scratched his head.

“Absolutely not! It’s perfect!” Ollana exclaimed.

“Annie Cresta!” Caesar Flickerman interrupted loudly when she reached him and took his hand. He led her carefully to her seat and she sat gracefully. 

They all fell quiet as they waited with baited breath to hear her speak for the first time since she left. 

“So, Annie...” Caesar began, giving her one of his wide smiles. “Tell us about home. You’re from District Four and we know that means that you can probably catch fish... but what about your home specifically can you tell us?”

“Well...” Annie began, “My home isn’t that interesting. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. It’s just me and my grandfather in my house...” She lied through her teeth. “I’m afraid everybody would find it rather dull.”

“I doubt that you could ever be dull.” Caesar said, before looking to the crowd. “Am I right?” They all cheered, but he must see the nervous look in her eye as he changed angles all the same. “Are you prepared for the Games, Annie?”

“Oh, yes.” She smiled slyly, “I’m more than prepared.”

“Are you? Can you tell us about that?”

“I don’t think I can, Caesar.” She said, regretful. Astrid frowned. Couldn’t Annie give them any clue on how she was doing, she clenched her fists. “You’ll just have to wait and see like everybody else.”

He laughed. “How about your competitors?” He asked, “Is there anyone that you think may pose the biggest threat to you?”

“How about everyone,” Tuffnut was immediately shushed by the others.

“Well,” Annie tilted her head, “I think the people that are the biggest threat are the ones that make you think they’re not. The ones who don’t look like they could really do some damage.” She smiled at him. _Like her._

Just who was this confident and mysterious creature wearing Annie’s face?

“And you’d know about that, I’d bet...” He looked to the audience. “Do you think she’s telling us a secret here?” The crowd were screaming their agreement and Annie gave them a megawatt smile. “Okay, okay... Annie. You’ve had several days of training here. How have they gone?”

“I’ve learned all kinds of new things.” She gave another sly smile.

“I’ll bet you have.” He said, leaning toward her to get all the gossip. Annie also leaned forward as if she wanted to hear all the drama that led to the break up between Merida and Jack from first period including the mother threatening to disown her daughter. “Finnick Odair is one of your mentors.” He said.

“Yes, he is.” She replied simply.

“The guy from before,” Fishlegs muttered. “Youngest victor ever, she has to have a good shot with him.” He looked over at them hopefully.

“Has he been helping you with your training?” Caesar asked. 

“Every night.” She answered, her voice low. Astrid went cold. The crowd whistled.

“Every night?” Caesar asked, sounding impressed. “But you’ve only been here a few days. Surely you couldn’t learn much in such a hurry?”

“Oh, Finnick is never in a hurry.” She replied, glancing at the crowd. “Everything he does is very... passionate.” The crowd lost their minds, screaming and cheering.

Stoick was purple and a vein was popping out in his neck. 

“And what has that been like?” Caesar asked her.

“Well, Caesar... quite exhausting to be honest. Like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.”

“I think we can believe that.” Caesar said, taking Annie’s hand and helping her up. “Everybody, Annie Cresta!”

Annie gave a wave to the crowd and then carefully headed off the stage. 

“What the fuck? Isn’t that illegal or something?” Snotlout turned to Ollana. “Like a teacher laying hands on a student. It feels pretty illegal.”

“Not at all,” Ollana waved it off as she watched the interview with a large smile. “He’s, what, two years older than her? I’d be surprised if they weren’t sleeping together. He has quite the reputation. There’s been rumours circling for weeks now. It’s nice to have it confirmed though.”

Stoick stormed out of the room. Gobber hesitated and then said, “Well, I’ve got to go check on him. You lads can finish the interviews,” before following his friend.

They turned back towards the interviews but she couldn’t pay attention. Annie’s not like that. Sex made her nervous. Always has. And she knows that hasn’t changed because Snotlout had teased her about being a virgin last year and she’d been blushing from head to toe.

As Grayson from District Seven’s face appeared in close up. She shuddered. That guy freaked her out just as much as the girl from District Two. While she had looked like she wanted to carve a knife into her spine for sport, he looked like what she imagined a school shooter would. As he rose up to leave, his pale blue eyes met her own unseeing and she stood up abruptly. 

The others turned towards her.

“Bathroom break,” she said, voice cutting.

She went upstairs to the bathroom, only to catch the voices of Stoick and Gobber as they spoke in hurried hushed tones. Astrid wavered, eyes going to the bathroom before flickering to the office. She creeped quietly to the voices.

“... sleeping around! I can’t even recognize her anymore,” Stoick hissed. 

“She’s probably just playing it up for the camera,” Gobber comforted. “If nothing, you can trust that I know her and our girl would not just announce to the world that she’s sleeping with a man she just met a few days ago. She was playing it up for the crowd. Look at how much they loved it.”

“She told me this would happen, you know.” Stoick said gruffly.

“What?” Gobber jested. “That she would sleep with a Don Juan murderer to get back at her father for not being around enough?” 

Stoick gave him a dirty look that said he was not in the mood for jokes. Especially for those on the touchy topic of him being an absentee father more often than not.

“That she would end up in the Hunger Games someday. And I dismissed her, told her that the odds were in her favour. She’s in one of the largest districts, another child would be chosen. These trips were just a formality that would end this year and she would never have to go back.”

“She couldn’t have known. Those were just her nerves talking.” Gobber defended, looked down at the picture of Annie on the mantelpiece.

Stoick’s shoulders shook as he spoke. “Don’t you see, Gobber? I don’t know how but Annie knew. She knew that they would never let her live. And I happily dropped her off at the jet, relieved that this nightmare was finally going to be over… but she knew that this was the last time...” A sob broke through.

Astrid watched as the strongest man she had ever known broke down in his best friend’s arms and shakily walked back downstairs. So Annie had known. She’d always known that this would be her fate. Dying alone, murdered by possibly that _creep_ from the last interview, and she had gone without telling them.

Annie’s house, that even after all these years she knew like the back of her hand, was suddenly giving her claustrophobia like never before and she had to leave. Running out the front door, she didn’t bother saying goodbye to any of the others. She was scared of what she might say through the red haze coloring her vision.

_How could Annie not tell them?_ Astrid kicked her frustration out on the tire of her car. If she didn’t do so, she might just go back inside and destroy Annie’s room. Maybe destroy a couple pictures of the missing girl on the way there, so the car was certainly the lesser of two evils.

Sure, they haven’t been close in years but doesn’t this warrants a small conversation at least. Or had she intended to disappear from their lives forever, without a word, as if she never existed in the first place?


	2. Chapter 2

“How long do the Games generally last?” Fishlegs asked Ollana.

The others fell silent also wanting to know the answer. Tuffnut shoved a piece of Smotlout’s mom’s chicken pot pie into his mouth as quickly as possible. He was the only one hungry as everyone else was too nervous to eat. At one today, the Hunger Games are about to begin.

“In general or for your tribute?” Ollana dabbed at her mouth with a napkin.

“For Annie,” he gulped.

“Well, she scored an eight and is from District Four, one of the wealthier districts, she’s quite pretty… I’d say she’d last five days, if she doesn’t get killed in the Bloodbath,” she smiled at them. Astrid turned to Ruffnut, the latter mouthed the _bloodbath?_ “That’s quite good, you should be proud!”

“Why, you little…” began Annie’s father, red in the face. Gobber was already on Stoick leading him out of the room before he could do some damage.

“C’mon Stoick, time for a break.”

“What did I say?” Alana asked, eyes wide. Snotlout fists clenched around his fork and knife.

“Pardon me, miss Ollana,” Tuffnut began in an over the top Capitol accent, “but may I ask what is the bloodbath? Sounds scary,” he said with a large grin.

_What was he doing? What if Ollana got offended and left? What if she called people who would block the Capitol channel from them?_ Astrid twisted around to wordlessly ask Ruffnut what the hell her twin was doing but when the latter met her panicked eyes, she grinned proudly as if he was doing damage control. Astrid only relaxed when she saw that Ollana was indeed flattered. 

She laughed an ear irritating high pitch giggle before answering, “the bloodbath is this great big fight that happens on the first day. Usually, the Gamemakers put all the weapons in one spot forcing the tributes to fight for them. It trims down the numbers really nicely so that only the real fighters are left in the action.”

Fishlegs face was white. “That’s horrible,” he breathed.

Ollana rolled her eyes mockingly and met eyes with Astrid. She gave her a look that said _can you believe this guy?_ “Maybe. But the more tributes dead, the closer your friend is to coming home.”

As had become the norm since these viewings of the Hunger Games had begun, the anticipation was thick in the air as they waited for it to start. This time though, it was a little different. Annie would for the first time be in mortal danger. She would be placed in some sealed off place where no one would take her out until she died or everyone else died first.

It began with the Capitol Anthem blaring like a Hunger Games intro. Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith welcomed them back on this very exciting day. 

They introduced the tributes once more with a small recap of their scores, names and nicknames for some and finally told the audience, “Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour!”

The camera switched to a wide ranging shot of a deserted town that resembled the set of an old Western film like the one that they had used for the end of year party last summer. Small wooden houses, dry fields and lots of flat spaces for filming. _This is the arena_ , she realized.

“Oooh! This is a good one,” Ollana cooed. When the others looked at her, she added helpfully, “lots of space for hiding!”

The camera then went on to show the other side of the arena. It scaled from a large forest to an impressive rockface. Once it reached the top of the cliff, it showed some type of dam. It was the type of place she’d be tempted to hike when on trips to Banff with her parents but knew it would be a closed off path for being too dangerous.

Finally, the screen rested on a large shot of weapons and backpacks stacked together against a large rock. It wasn’t any modern weapons like guns but a bow and arrow, axes, knives, swords. _Primitive weapons_ for the people that she could tell that the Capitol from Ollana speaking thought primitive compared to them.

This was where it would start then. Caesar went on to explain that this was the Cornucopia and “look at the variety of the weapons”.

Tubes elevated from platforms around the _Cornucopia_ and she could see that the tributes were inside them. As the tubes returned down under, it left the tributes vulnerable to each other.

_60, 59, 58, 57..._

“There she is,” Snotlout pointed to the left corner of the television. Annie stood observing everything around her with alertness. She looked ready to bolt. Astrid watched as her dark ponytail blew slightly from the breeze, the ends turning a magnetic green.

“Why doesn’t she just run right now. It might be cheating but still… this is a 60 second opening?” Stoick inquired.

“Trust me. You don’t want her to do that.” Ollana smirked.

_32, 31, 30..._

The twelve year old boy turned frightened eyes around him before jumping off the platform. Before he even hit the ground, the platform exploded.

Snotlout let out a high pitch scream.

“Oh my god,” Astrid whispered as she watched the little boy’s body splatter. A leg landed near Grayson who smiled at the sight.

“I’m going to be sick,” Fishlegs said, face green.

“There’s one every few years,” Ollana sighed, eyes stuck on the screen. “They know what will happen, I don’t understand why they think it’ll be different for them.”

They all turned towards her slowly and Ruffnut stood up ready to explode. No one made a move to stop her except Ollana who was still watching the screen and ignoring everything around her. 

“The Games are about to start,” she chided. “Pay attention! Things are going to be a bit chaotic for a while.”

_5, 4..._

Astrid turned back to the television and watched Annie breathe deeply, face pale. Clearly trying to calm herself down before keeping her eyes straight on the houses. _The kid must’ve thrown her off her game._

_3…_

She can’t believe she is sitting here trying to not think of a child’s death after it happened literally 30 seconds ago before her eyes.

A sickening feeling settled into her stomach that wouldn’t leave her for a very long time. This Game hasn’t even started and it already feels like something has been taken from her. How did Annie do this every year? How does anyone in Panem do this?

_2…_

She snuck a look at Ollana. And she realized that the Capitol was too numb to care at this point. 

_Run, Annie_ , she thought. _Run._

_1…_

They were given a wide angle shot of the tributes all getting off their metal circles as the gong ran out.

Astrid spotted Annie then. She was sprinting swiftly across the field. She watched her leap over a girl who fell with a knife in her back and keep going. 

Stoick made a horrible noise that reminded her of a tortured animal.

“Thor’s hammer,” Gobber breathes. 

Astrid couldn’t look away if she wanted to. For a horrible second she thought that she was actually heading for the Cornucopia, but then she ran past it and showed no signs of slowing down. Fishlegs let out a sigh of relief.

The wide angle shot was replaced with more individual shots now as close-ups of the first wave of killing were broadcast. Astrid questioned numbly in the back of her head at how the camera was able to get that close to the tributes.

Annie’s district partner was upsettingly good at killing. Astrid watched him cut down the boy from District Ten with no more effort than one would spend when swatting a fly. Ruffnut gripped her hand as they watched the blood of his kill splatter across Percy’s face. Amity from District One took on the boy from District Eleven. The boy was probably six feet three in height, but within minutes Amity had cut his throat.

“Fuck,” Tuffnut whispered.

They stared at the screen in horror as the girl From District Two with the crazy eyes hacked the girl from District Nine to pieces. _She was dead, why wasn’t she stopping!_ She wanted to yell. Sadie wouldn’t stop swinging the axe at the body until it was completely dismembered, and then she just moved on to the next closest person. Throwing a glance at Fishlegs to see if he needed to leave, her eyebrow raised in surprise. He was sweating and his palms were white from how tightly he was holding his notebook but he didn’t look away. 

She forced her eyes back to the screen reluctantly just in time to watch the girl from District Ten have her guts spilled all over the field. Screaming from the screen was heard even off camera but they soon didn’t need to wonder as it focused on who it was coming from. Astrid frowned, watching as the cameras zoomed in nice and close, ready to capture every detail.

Grayson had the girl from District Twelve on the ground. Everybody in the living room watched silently as he kicked her around repeatedly until she stopped trying to get away. He then forced her onto her back and pinned her to the ground with his own weight. She’d stopped screaming and was now just crying hysterically.

“Come on, Bevvie...” he drawled, placing a hand to her throat. “You knew this was coming, didn’t you?”

They watched as she pleaded for her life and begged for her mother as he strangled her to death. Astrid’s stomach twisting as Grayson pressed his lips to the dead girl’s before climbing off of her. She dearly hoped that somebody would kill that son of a bitch before he got anywhere near Annie. Ruffnut’s almost painful grip told her that she agreed with that hope.

“Do you think rape happens in the arena sometimes,” Fishlegs said shakily.

“No! It can’t!” Snotlout said aggressively and then pleadingly to Ollana.

She opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to say. Astrid realized she was a bit shaken by what happened on screen.

“Well? Answer him!” Stoick growled.

“I’ve never seen it happen,” she hurried to say. “There’s rumours but rumours aren’t always the truth.”

Astrid’s thoughts raced. What if it does happen and the camera just switches to another tribute before the deed happened? Maybe sexual assault is too much for even the Capitol.

“Why don’t you all take a break in the kitchen for a bit,” Ollana said, voice quivering. “I’ll tell you when Annie comes on screen and you can just… take a break. She’s escaped the Bloodbath and it’s going to focus on that for another half an hour at least before showing what those who escaped are up to.”

They didn’t argue with her. They all needed a moment to recuperate from all the gory.

Stoick finished his can of beer with a large gulp and threw it in the garbage. Astrid’s eyes followed and she could see that his garbage bin was soon going to be overflowing with bottles and cans.

“So that was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” Ruffnut flopped in her seat. They could still hear screams from the TV.

“You would think with how much gory we’re exposed to in movies, we’d be more or less okay with this but…” Astrid trailed off.

“But this is real,” Fishlegs finished.

“She made it past the Bloodbath so the hardest part is over,” Snotlout said, eyes shining with something disgustingly close to hope. “Like Ollana said, she’s just that much closer to home.”

Astrid eyed him with pity. This was his cousin in that arena. The girl who used to be the closest thing to a little sister that he would ever have. Their relationship had deteriorated to the point that he was bullying her at school but this was high school. Astrid knew the big lug and he probably always figured that when they are older, they’d be cool again. They’re family after all, they’ll always be in each other’s lives. But Annie was never going to make it to her nineteenth birthday, no reconciliations will ever come to be and no one wanted to be the one to tell him that. So they didn’t.

They all know that she’s going to die at one of these kids' hands. If she’s lucky, it’ll be Amity who does it. From what Astrid could see, she killed quickly and didn’t try to draw it out like Sadie and Grayson. But she didn’t say that out loud.

Astrid just drank her glass of water and stewed in silence.

“Yoohoo! Mr. Haddock, Annie’s on now!” The dreaded announcement was made and they all hurried back to the living room. Ollana looked like she was all better now so… yay. 

They watched as Annie walked cautiously behind one of the wooden houses. Astrid’s breath caught in her throat as the red haired boy from District Nine crept up behind her and threw her into the wall of the house by her ponytail.

_This is it. This is how it’s going to end._

He shook her which made her head hit the wooden wall behind her with loud thumps.

A little voice in her head that sounded like her mother said _well that’s definitely a concussion. No sports or laptop for at least a week._

“How’s Finnick Odair going to help you now? You think screwing your mentor means you’ll be safe, huh?” he asked as he began strangling her. He was enraged and Astrid knew this wasn’t going to be quick. “You stupid slut! Answer me!”

She was going to die. Astrid knew this was coming, they all did except for Snotlout. Annie was going to die. She was going to die and then... then she was not.

Annie managed to escape his hold and make a run for it. He followed after her and just as he was going to get her again because of that damn ponytail, he fell to the ground. Dead from a knife in his back.

Behind him was Percy. _Shit. Trading one threat for another._ The boy tore out the knife from the redhead’s back.

He marched towards Annie and Astrid braced herself but he only shoved a pack of knives — including the bloody one — into her hands.

“You’re the one who killed him, got it?” he murmured. Annie nodded her head and made no move to run.

_He’s helping her._

“I thought we agreed that we would make a run for weapons,” he moved her around the body. “You just made the alliance a much harder sell.” 

_Alliance? What alliance?_

“Oh goodie! She’s a part of the Career alliance!” Ollana said giddily. “She’s definitely got a shot then.”

Astrid glanced at her and decided to ask later.

“Sorry,” Annie looked down at her feet. “I got scared because Grayson’s platform was right next to mine. So I ran for it.”

“No worries just follow my lead,” he turned to the direction he had come from and raised his voice. “Guys! I found her! Told you she wasn’t a pussy!”

“Why is he yelling!” Snotlout exclaimed. “He’s giving away their position!”

A few seconds later as if a confirmation of his worst fears, Sadie, Maximus, Dulce and Amity could be seen jogging towards them.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Tuffnut groaned.

“No, I think this might actually be planned,” Gobber scratches his head.

“What happened to you Annie?” Sadie questioned her. “We thought you died in the bloodbath but then we couldn’t find the body.”

“As if she’d die that easily,” Percy drawled out. “She went after a runner.” He kicked the dead body.

“Nice!” Amity whistled. “He must’ve gone down in one shot. Dulce, check it out! It went straight through the heart.”

Annie shrugged as if it was no big deal. “He didn’t go down right away. I wanted a bit of a fight so we did a bit of hand to hand for a while. See?” She pointed the bruises at her neck. “But then he tried to escape so I figured I should end it quickly.”

“Nice,” Sadie smiled wickedly. “Maximus, give her a water bottle and a backpack.”

“Don’t drink too much. We managed to get nine full bottles but we haven’t found any water source yet.”

“Well folks, the Career alliance is complete!” Caesar exclaimed, laughingly.

As the camera wasn’t with Annie anymore, she didn’t bother paying attention. 

She finally asked Ollana, once and for all, “What’s the career alliance?”

“I knew you’d ask that, in fact I thought you’d ask much earlier,” Ollana giggled, as if she found some sadistic pleasure from their ignorance of the reality show that might kill their friends. “District One, Two and Four all train their children to fight in the games from a young age, that way they’ll be ready. They're not supposed to but nobody cares because it makes the games much more interesting! That’s why they are called the Careers because they train their whole lives for the games!”

Well, that’s disturbing but it certainly explains some of their behaviour.

Stoick made a noise of understanding. “I would’ve thought they’d be fighting each other then. Since they’re each top dogs in the arena.”

“No, silly! They make an alliance because of that fact! If they’re too busy fighting each other, then the weaker tributes might just get away. See, what they do is they band together to hunt the weaker tributes down and once it’s just them, they give each other a certain amount of time to get away before they go after each other.”

So they become something akin to friends and then after spending days watching each other’s backs, they try to kill each other. Sounds legit. 

Astrid knows she shouldn’t complain. At least, Annie is protected with them and Percy, contrary to her expectations, doesn’t seem like a bad guy.

Over the next few hours, the screen would show them a couple of stragglers resting and hiding, Grayson peeping through dirty windows clearly looking for people in the houses, sword ready for some action and the careers making a base. Occasionally, the commentators would explain or theorize some of the tributes' course of actions or say some inside information like the fact that the dam at the top of the cliff was the only water source.

BOOM!

They all jumped at the unexpected sound which was then repeated eleven times in succession.

_I thought there weren’t any modern weapons!_

“Not to worry, the cannon just indicates the death toll!” Ollana hurried to say. “Starting tomorrow, you will hear the cannon right away when someone dies.”

So parents will know exactly when their child leaves the world. How kind of the Capitol.  
Fishlegs immediately started noting down in his booklet how many were dead. Faces started appearing in the sky to the Capitol Anthem.

The first to appear was the boy from District Five, his female counterpart followed right after. Both from District Six were shown. The little boy from District Eight which made Astrid want to scream and shout. Both from District Nine and District Ten followed. The tall boy from District Eleven and it finally ended with the girl from District Twelve. 

“Only…” Ruffnut trailed off as she counted out loud. 

“Twelve people left excluding Annie.” 

***

Day Two started off as good as it could get in a televised show of child murder. 

They went to Annie’s house early in the morning because Olanna said that sometimes, things happen at night so Caesar shows it then early in the morning. 

Stoick let the TV play as background noise and tried not to pay attention to it unless the careers were on the screen. 

“We need to go hunt. I don’t know about you but I’m not eating beef jerky and cans of beans for the next few weeks,” Dulce exclaimed after taking a sip of water. 

“Agreed. Maybe we can find a lake,” Annie added hopefully. 

“How can she smile like that,” Astrid asked, staring at the screen as if it held all the answers in the world. “When she’s in there!” 

“I mean she’s probably, like, accepted it by now. You know?” Ruffnut replied. 

She didn’t. If Astrid was in there, she’d be raging angrily at the world, looking for ways to give the Capitol a big fuck you. 

Stoick frowned harder. 

“Or a few tributes,” Sadie said with a vile smile. 

“We’ll need to split. A few of us need to keep an eye on the base while the others get food,” Percy stated. The others nodded in agreement. “Annie and I will stay here then.” 

“No way,” Sadie interrupted. “I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. If I leave you here with Annie, you’d both be gone by the time we’re back with all the other water bottles and food. Annie comes with me.” She pulled Annie by the arm to her side. 

Tuffnut stood up straight in his seat, rubbing his hands against one another with an eager look in his eye. 

“Shit’s about to go down,” he exclaims. 

Astrid rolls her eyes. _Yes, Tuffnut, we want a fight to break out in Annie’s group on the show where people kill each other._

Percy shrugged and shared a look with Dulce as if to say _she’s way too suspicious._

Sadie watched the interaction with narrowed eyes. Astrid was scared for a moment that she’d throw her axe at him but she just turned around. Tension she didn’t know she had left Astrid’s body. 

“Maximux, you’re staying.” 

And so Sadie, Dulce, Amity and Annie left to look for food. Like in a real show, it switched to the supporting cast to show what they’re up to. In this case, Grayson had found the girl from District Three. They all quickly left the room with the unspoken agreement that Ollana would call them back if anything interesting to do with Annie happened.

Two hours or so later, they were brought back to the living room by an excited Ollana. 

“What’ve we missed?” Ruffnut asked as she jumped into a chair. 

“Not much. Just the District Three girl died. There was a small earthquake a half an hour ago but nobody got hurt.” 

“An earthquake!” An alarmed Gobber exclaimed. 

“Nothing to worry about,” Ollana waved it off. “The Gamemakers do simulated forest fires and the like all the time. But the Careers and the alliance of Eleven and Twelve are about to run into each other.”  


She was right. The Careers were following a coyote from a distance and it drove them closer and closer to the beautiful girl from District Eleven and the boy from District Twelve.  


Astrid could see that Stoick was alarmed that 1. They were following a coyote who can kill them at any time. 2. They were about to meet up with people who _will be hostile._

There’s no doubt that they won’t be hostile because Amity had killed the boy from District Eleven and earlier when the feed rested on the duo, the girl from Eleven mentioned how they were dating. Their plan had been that she’d run out of the Cornucopia and he’d get them a backpack. Considering how it went, she was no doubt vengeful.

Turns out, Stoick had nothing to be alarmed about. Basically, four against two means that they had the upper hand.  
The second the twosome saw the Careers, they made a run for it. The Careers immediately abandoned their coyote and ran after the tributes hollering and cheering.

“Stop, c’mon! We’re not going to hurt you,” Sadie calls out mockingly.

“Where are you going, Eleven?” Dulce yelled breathlessly as he ran.

“You know how this is going to end, why don’t you do us all a favour and,” Amity huffed, more exasperated than anything and slightly out of breath “just stop!”

Right as she said that, the boy from Twelve tripped and fell to the ground. The dark skinned girl paused and turned towards her ally who had fallen behind but Dulce was already upon him with his spear. She hesitated for a second, eyes flickering between her ally and freedom but it was a second too long as the girls caught up to her. A cannon boomed. Twelve was dead.

Sadie jumped her like a crazy squirrel, pushing them both down to the ground. The girl from Eleven struggled against her but Sadie punched her in the stomach knocking the air out of her sails.

Sadie, Amity and Annie circled the poor girl as she looked around frantic for a way out. The Career girls had her trapped. Astrid felt sick to her stomach as she watched them taunt and laugh at her teary eyes.

Seeing the Careers at work, she could finally see why the Capitol liked them so much. These tributes were just as much part of the punishment as any earthquake or poison berries. A pack of hyenas picking off the weak and playing with their food is the best way to describe it. They made their victims suffer. And the parents watch, unable to do anything.

The worst part wasn’t that Annie was with these laughing hyenas but that they reminded her uncomfortably of Snotlout and the twins tormenting Annie at school. She snuck a look at Snotlout and realized by the way his eyes were glued to his cousin, he was thinking the same thing.

Annie had a smile on her face though and she was laughing just as much as them. _How can she laugh like that in this situation?_ Astrid sucked in a deep breath and then blew it back out. In and out. _Think about it logically, Astrid._ Annie needs to look just as ruthless as the rest of the Careers if she doesn’t want them to turn on her. They pick off the weak. And while Percy hid the fact that she can’t kill for shit, that doesn’t mean they won’t wise up.

“Stay there, you little rat!” Sadie pushed the girl from Eleven back onto the floor and she landed with a small scream.  
Sadie turned to Annie with a crazed smile on her face.

“Time to prove yourself, Four!”

Annie’s smile slipped off her face. “What?”

“No,” Stoick let out in dismay.

“We never got the chance to see you at work! Impress us,” she giggled manically. “This way you can add to your kill count!” 

“Annie won’t be able to do it,” Snotlout exclaimed. “They’ll know she’s not like them!”

The twins exchanged a worried glance.

The camera went into close up on Annie’s face. You can see the transition happen on her face as she made her choice. From the way she bit her lip and her fingers automatically went to play with her hair, Astrid knew that that look on her face was real. Annie’s face then smoothed out into a mask of resolve. She took a step forward towards the scared girl on the ground with a tight grip on her knife.

Fishlegs covered his eyes. They didn’t want to see this. _Annie isn’t a killer._  
In a surprise move, the girl from Eleven moved fast and yanked Annie’s leg, destabilizing her and pulling her to the ground. She lost her grip on the knife as it fell to the wayside.

The two began struggling on the ground evoking memories of Ruffnut’s days in amateur girl’s wrestling.

“Get her in a chokehold, Annie!” Ruffnut yelled.

Unfortunately, Annie didn’t hear her and the girl from District Eleven scrambled towards the knife.

“Go Annie!” Amity encouraged.”You can do this! Shank the bitch!”

Annie jumped on top of her again only to get slashed by her own knife.

Gobber hissed in pain just as Annie did. The sight of her own blood didn’t discourage Annie, in fact it seemed to motivate her as she punched the girl in the throat. Hard.

She ripped the knife out of her opponent’s hand as the girl ferociously grasped for air. Before she even realized that Annie was in possession of the knife, Annie striked. Stabbing her in the chest multiple times overzealously. She didn’t stop until she heard the cannon go boom. She slumped onto the ground, exhausted.

The fight took only three minutes but it felt like three hours.

Amity helped the out of breath Annie up and Sadie congratulated her on giving the Capitol a good show.  
Astrid couldn’t look away as Annie, sarcastic and clumsy, _don’t hurt the ants,_ Annie wiped the blood off her brow.

“Okay! I’m feeling that now would be a good time for a break,” Ollana said as she watched them all watch the screen in shock. 

Stoick chugged his bottle of beer quickly and glowered down at it when there was nothing left. Stoick throws the bottle against the wall with all his strength. It shattered into little pieces as the Dragon Riders jumped out the way. Astrid watches him with wide eyes.  


__

Realizing what he’d done, Astrid thought he looked surprised at his own strength and rather apologetic. He didn’t know what to say so he just turned tail and left the house.  


__

“Fuck, this is insane,” Snotlout slumped into his seat.  


__

“What?” Tuffnut asked, a dumb look on his face.  


__

“All of it!”  


__

And what could they say to that? It’s not normal to see your childhood friend be forced into becoming a murderer.  
But it’s just like Annie to end up getting caught up in the extreme, Astrid thought morbidly. Some people get peer pressured into drinking or taking drugs, Annie gets pressured into killing a girl.  


__

It hit her like a punch in the stomach exactly what the Hunger Games were designed to do. She thought she knew what exactly these games did to punish the districts but it was much more cruel than she had thought. She could practically hear Caesar Flickerman say with a large grin _watch as we kill your children. Watch as we warp them into monsters you’d never dream they’d become. Watch as you can’t do anything about it._

__

*** 

__

The careers ate around a fire with no fear that they would be attacked if someone saw the smoke signaling human life, high on their recent kills.

__

Astrid searched for signs of the girl she knew in Annie but she just smiled and laughed with Percy as Amity recounted Annie’s kill in over exaggerated terms and Dulce boasted of his own. 

__

Snotlout and Stoick both looked like they were going to be sick. Logically, they all understood why she murdered the girl and what she was stuck in but being alright with Annie being a murderer is another thing. 

__

__

Strangely enough, Gobber was the one who was able to look past Annie’s role in the girl from District Eleven’s death. He was able to separate the Annie who assisted him in his car repair shop to the Annie forcing laughter about the way her victim gasped when she got stabbed.

__

Annie hissed on screen when she moved her arm too quickly straining her bandaged hip. She massaged around it with her hand.

__

“You okay there, slugger?” Percy asked.

__

“Just stings,” Annie replied, wincing.

__

That’s when they heard a distinctive chime that made those in the living room tense up.

__

“Don’t worry! That’s the parachute there, see?” Ollana pointed to the corner of the screen where they could see a silky silver parachute carrying a silver cylinder float down to the careers landing directly in front of Annie. “It carries a sponsored item for Annie,” she cheered.

__

“That’s got to be the first one in the games,” Percy said, leaning forward to get a closer look.

__

Astrid watched attentively to see what Annie would get in her parachute. She opened up the metal container and took out a jar. It looked like one of the moisturizing creams her mom uses after taking a shower.

__

“For your cut!” Amity gasped. She looked directly into the hidden camera and said, “Seriously Odair, it’s not that serious! You didn’t need to waste your sponsor money on this.”

__

“Only the best for his little girlfriend,” Dulce smirked. Annie blushed red from head to toes.Stoick and Gobber tensed. Astrid still didn’t know what to think about that. 

__

Annie, not only a murderer, but sleeping with an extremely proficient and slutty killer. They’d seen him doing an interview with Claudius Templesmith and he was exactly the type of smooth talker that they didn’t want her talking to. And Astrid knows that she has no right to care about her former friend’s sex life, okay? But considering what she’s watching, she can’t help but feel a little overprotective.

__

“Don’t tease Annie. If I had known that sleeping with my mentor would get me the special treatment,” Sadie sneered at that. “I would’ve done it too.” She let out a harsh breath.

__

Astrid’s jaw dropped. _Where’s all that female solidarity from before?_

__

“Like Enobaria would’ve slept with you,” Maximus shot back.

__

“Shut up, Max!”

__

Annie tried to distance herself from the fight by reading the small paper message that was in the container.

__

Amity noticed. 

__

“Is that a love letter from Odair,” Amity giggled. Annie blushed an even darker red than before as she opened and closed her mouth, unsure of what to say. “Let me read it!” She made playful grabbing gestures for the small scroll.

__

“Leave her alone, Amity,” Percy came in to save the day. “Her and Odair’s love poems are not something you want to read, trust me.”

__

Attention caught with that statement, Amity started bugging Percy to tell her more and left Annie alone.

__

Annie quickly threw the note into the fire.

__

***

__

“Are you sure you want to keep watching these Hunger Games, honey?” Zephyr Hofferson worried. “Every time you come back, you look exhausted and heartbroken.”

__

“I’m sure, mom,” Astrid replied, annoyed. “I need to finish this.”

__

Her mother gave her a look. “You woke up screaming last night, sweetie.”

__

“I need to see this through for Annie, mom.” Astrid frowned at the table as she shoved a spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth. “I can’t just stop halfway through just because things get tough.”

__

Her mother looked doubtful but she knew that whatever happens to Annie in the next few days will prove dire to Astrid’s mental state. She’ll let her deal with this the way she sees fit for now but she’ll start looking for a good therapist online for when the fallout happens.

__

***

__

“Are you ready for Day Three of the Hunger Games,” Ollana practically skipped, nay hopped, over to Astrid as she spoke.

__

“Super excited,” Astrid intoned, eyes scanning the others. They all looked much better than they had when they left last night. She went over to them as they spoke quietly to one another.

__

“... interviews,” Fishlegs said. “At the rate it’s going, they should be arriving any day now.”

__

“Hey guys,” Astrid made her presence known. “What are you guys talking about?”

__

“Ollana said that when there’s only eight tributes left, they make home visits where they interview the family and friends.” Snotlout eagerly told her. 

__

Yup. Even as he’s freaking out over his cousin’s mortal peril, he still finds time to try and get on her good side.

__

She had to give him credit. It took him almost two weeks to do so. Despite the fact that she hated when he flirted with her, it was nice to see some of his normal self emerging. She wondered how long it would last.

__

“There’s only ten tributes left including Annie,” Fishlegs added. “I want to prepare some answers with some practice questions.”

__

}Who cares?” Astrid doesn’t want to be complicit in any ways with the Hunger Games.

__

“You should,” Fishlegs responded. Astrid raised an eyebrow. Fishlegs seems to have grown a bit of a backbone in the last few years. “The way we act can affect how people will see her and how many sponsors she can get. Do you really want to leave the twins to go into the interviews with no prep?”

__

“Hey!” The twins yelled, vexed.She tried to imagine it. It would be a disaster. 

__

“I’ve been writing down how expensive the items they can get are,” Fishlegs waved his notebook in his hand. “Each time they show up at the bottom of the screen when Caesar does his commentary, it becomes a little more expensive. Especially water.”

__

_They showed the price of Annie’s healing cream and the other items at the bottom of the screen?_ She hadn’t noticed.

__

“And there’s like no water in there unless they hike up that cliff. They’ll need some sponsors for that when they run out,” Snotlout stayed the obvious.

__

So she can do something that might actually help Annie. She felt a ghost of a smile spread across her lips.

__

“It’s starting,” Ollana exclaimed giddily as she ran to her seat.

__

“Let’s get this over with,” Stoick grunted. Where the rest of the younger generation was in a much better mood after some much needed sleep, he looked worse than ever. His hand gripped an unopened can of beer even this early in the morning and there were dark circles under his eyes that spoke of a sleepless night.

__

“Now, last night was a doozy,” Caesar Flickerman exclaimed cheerily. “For those of you who weren’t up all of last night watching the Hunger Games, where were you!” He yelled jokingly.

__

The Dragon Riders exchanged glances. What could’ve happened in the eight hours they spent sleeping? Apparently a lot.

__

Caesar rolled the tape that went on in clearly the middle of the night.

__

The Careers were sleeping with Annie on watch between the window and door. She checked the two openings silently and after a moment of clear indecision she stood up.

__

She went close to Percy and waved a hand in front of his face. Satisfied, she did the same with Amity and then with Dulce until she made all the rounds. She sneaked by and quietly snuck six water bottles into her backpack.

__

“She can’t be…” Ruffnut trailed off, voice strained.

__

She looked at the remaining three water bottles and then at Percy. Astrid wondered if she was thinking of taking those ones too. Annie turned around and left the wooden house. 

__

“She just stole most of their water supply,” Fishlegs sat disbelieving. “They’ll go thirsty in three days max because of her.”

__

_Annie might’ve just gotten rid of her strongest opponents. What the absolute fuck. WHAT THE FUCK?!_

__

“There you have it folks! Annie Cresta made the betrayal of the year with this move!” Caesar laughed. “It might even win her the game!”

__

“That’s my girl,” Gobber exclaimed. Snotlout pumped his fist in the air as he let out a happy shout.

__

“Absolutely ruthless,” Ruffnut said admiringly.

__

Astrid smiled big for the first time in forever. She finally allowed a bit of the hope that she so pitied Snotlout for feeling the day before. 

__

She might have underestimated Annie in all this by seeing the twelve year old girl and not the grown woman she admittedly didn’t know. What she does know is that Annie hasn’t given up. Everyone else might’ve given up on her but she hasn’t. She’s doing whatever it takes to come home. She’s found ways even if they are a little unconventional to get a leg up in the competition (I.e Finnick Odair) and Astrid won’t let anyone shame her for that. Because of those unconventional methods, she’s now one of the last ten tributes standing.

__

The screen switches back to the morning where the Careers have found out that they’ve been robbed and betrayed.

__

“I can’t believe she did that,” Amity looked mournfully at the smoke of their fire from last night. 

__

“Believe it, blondie!” Sadie snarled. “That little whore is a traitor! When I get my hands on her…” she throws her axe into the tree where it’s thrown so harshly that it sticks there.

__

“As long as you can’t find her, I wouldn’t count on that,” Astrid muttered. _And you better stay far away from the wicked bitch of the West, Annie._

__

“Maybe don’t start ruining the blades of our weapons before we can actually use them,” Percy cooly stated.

__

“Don’t start with me, Four,” she growled, yanking her axe out of the tree. Sadie stalked towards him, axe raised in his direction. “How do we know you aren’t in cahoots with her!”

__

Percy placed his hand on his sword as he put it across his knees as if he had no worries in the world but his alert eyes said another story. “If I was in on this with her, I would have left last night.”

__

Maximus moved to Sadie’s side. “He’s right. If I was him, I’d be long gone. It’d be suicide to stay. If he was in on it, he wouldn’t be here right now.”

__

The Careers finally simmered down enough to split the water supply equally for the rest of the day and then they estimated that they’d run out by the end of the day. So they needed to make a plan to somehow gather more water.

__

That’s when they heard the chime of a parachute. Astrid scowled. _Here comes the cavalry._ She doesn’t want to say just let them die, but she wasn’t feeling much pity for them after watching them take pleasure in killing for the past two days.

__

Dulce rushed to open it, smiling as he took out a water bottle. Then his smile dropped and he shook it.

__

“It’s empty,” he told the others.

__

“What,” Sadie scowled. “Of all the useless…” She muttered under her breath.

__

The twins started laughing.

__

“Their mentors are really kicking them when they’re down,” Ruffnut snorted.

__

“Did they not have enough sponsor money for the water inside,” Tiffnut smiled mockingly.

__

“Cashmere wouldn’t just send us something useless,” Amity defended her mentor.

__

He looked at her and then at the bottle as if to say _pretty sure she did._

__

Amity started looking inside the cylinder for a message like the one Annie got but nothing.

__

Astrid smiled. _Nothing but an insult and a waste of money._

__

“She wouldn’t give us an empty water bottle if she was trying to punish us, she’d send an insulting message too.” The other Careers started looking a bit uncertain. “She’s trying to send a message,” she faltered before exclaiming, “Of course, there’s another water supply that we haven’t found!”

__

From there, they deduced that the only place that they haven’t scavenged — the cliff — must be where the water is held.

__

“Can they do that?” Snotlout asked. “Isn't it cheating?”

__

“Yes, she can,” Ollana said. “Cashmere didn’t send a note giving away information about the arena. She simply sent them a gift that she was always allowed to send and they figured it out. It’s about time someone from the Careers figures out about the dam.”

__

The camera left the Careers just as they started making their way to the other side of the arena for Annie who, Caesar says, has been alternating walking and jogging all night long to get far away from the Careers in case they wake up.

__

She could be seen struggling to climb up a large tree. Astrid winced as she fell for the second time. Annie was always the worst at climbing trees when they were kids, she thought fondly.

_Claudius Templesmith’s voice could be heard explaining exactly where the tributes are in distance from each other on a map of the arena._

__

“As you can see, Annie Cresta walked all the way to the other side of the arena to the forest area. It would take a whole day just for her former allies to reach her general area if they knew where she was, that is,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “But just to get to the cliffs, the Careers will need to walk through the forest. There might just be a reunion for the ages between the former allies!”

__

“Shit luck,” Gobber winced.

__

“They’re really loud, Annie will know if they’re nearby and be able to hide,” Astrid comforted.

__

The rest of the day was much less exciting which was a welcome break after the first two days.

__

The only thing interesting to happen was the reveal that Grayson had been spying on the Careers and had decided to simply follow them from a distance. His mentor when being interviewed by Caesar had praised the move saying that this way he’ll know where they are at all times. The mentor from District Two, Enobaria, called it a bad call because the moment they find him, he’ll be ripped to shreds. She said it all with a bloodthirsty smile that reminded Astrid of her tribute.

__

The cameras would switch between Annie making a home for herself in her tree hidden from view, the careers sniping at each other as they traiked their way to the cliff and Grayson following out of sight. The boy from District Three and his ally the girl from District Seven also got much more time on the air as they talked about their homes and what they would say to their families if they returned, gaining much sympathy from Capitol viewers. Just like a real reality show, Astrid mused. They had realized on the second day that there was a dam but got tired a lot easier. While they had a head start on the Careers, they hadn’t got there as fast as they could’ve. 

__

Sometimes, the camera would wander to the girl from District Eight who had made her way to the cliff on the first day and has been enjoying a steady water supply but since she hasn’t been doing anything interesting other than hiding, she wasn’t shown much. 

__

It wasn’t hard to see that the dam was meant to draw them together and it was working like a charm. They were all going to the same area or were already there and if they saw each other, it would become another Bloodbath.

__

Astrid was just happy that Annie wasn’t going to the cliffs like the others. She stayed in her tree with her six water bottles and didn’t waste them. If she plays her cards right, they can last at least seven days.

__

Nobody died on Day Three. 

__

Astrid wondered why she didn’t feel happy about that.

__


	3. Chapter 3

Day Four didn’t show much of Annie. It just showed the Careers, the outlying districts alliance and Grayson all reaching the dam but just missing each other. Astrid figured that Annie was too boring for the Capitol now that she’s not doing anything which means that she’s safe.

Fishlegs didn’t think it was a good thing.

“I’ve been studying the games since it began,” Fishlegs began.

“With my assistance,” Ruffnut cried. Fishlegs sent her an annoyed glance.

“And I’ve noticed that the Gamemakers manipulate things so that it leads to confrontation or danger like the coyote led them straight to Eleven and Twelve. The small earthquakes were there to add tension. The girl from District Seven almost had a branch crush her because of that. I’m scared that if things become too stale, they’ll up the ante by forcing confrontation again like in a real reality show.”

“I’m the one who noticed that,” Ruffnut said proudly. “It reminded me of Bachelor Nation, manipulating the contestants and shit.”

“So if nobody dies soon,” Snotlout slowly wrapped his head around the idea. “They’re going to make it happen?”

Fishlegs nodded grimly.

***

Day Five was an exciting one for every tribute but Annie. Astrid refused to feel guilty for her relief that this happened because if not for those _exciting events,_ the Capitol might get restless and go after Annie.

The Careers had made their home right beside the dam at the top of the cliff, that way if anyone tried to come by for water, they were ready.

Fortunately, the girl from Eight, having noticed they were arriving at her hiding spot the day before, filled up two water bottles that should last her a few days before she fled.

The District Three and Seven alliance had come up with the risky plan of going back for more water when the Careers left to hunt. They stayed high in the trees as they watched and waited. Finally, all the Careers left to help Maximus with the caribou he found and the girl ran to get some water.

What she hadn’t anticipated was that they weren’t the only ones waiting for the Careers to leave and when Grayson saw her out in the open, he attacked. Knocking her out with a rock, he carried her out of there. Her partner didn’t make a move to go after them.

“Why didn’t he just kill her,” Tuffnut asked.

“Maybe he thinks if she struggles and screams the Careers might come back,” Astrid theorized.

“It’s because if he kills her, there will be blood letting them know someone’s been there,” Stoick said, eyes darkening. “Plus, you’ve seen how he loves this. He wants to take his time.”

“Dark,” Ruffnut whistled.

“They’re from the same district,” Fishlegs whispered. 

Astrid shivered. _Isn’t that like me killing Heather or someone else I go to school with?_

The screen switched to the Careers who had returned none the wiser to what had just transpired. Things had been tense between them since Annie’s betrayal. They’ve been sceptical of each other’s actions and antagonizing each other because of it. The one getting the most flack was Percy though.

Percy got up from where he was laying down in the rocks and took his sword and backpack as he left the base.

“Where are you going,” Sadie asked, mouth set in a frown and eyes flashing.

“To take a piss. Can I do that, your highness?” He said, stretching his neck and cracking his fingers.

Dulce picks up his spear and jogs over to him.

“I’ll go with you, buddy,” Dulce pats Percy harshly on the back. 

“After you,” Percy smiled, tousling his blonde hair.

The two walked for a good ten minute before they found a shaded hidden area. Dulce pulled down his pants and Astrid wondered why they were lingering on them for this when Percy striked.

A brief fight followed that Percy had the advantage of right from the beginning.  
He had the element of surprise on his side, his weapon was better for close range compared to Dulce’s spear and Dulce had his pants down. 

BOOM!

One man stood up at the end and that was Percy. Taking his backpack, sword, Dulce’s water bottle and spear, he made a run for it before the girls and Maximus realized what had transpired.

“Isn’t there like an expression that does this,” Ruffnut joked weakly. They turned to her. “Dying with your pants down?”

“It’s caught with your pants down,” Astrid replied. 

“That works too.”

The Gamemakers finally revealed the girl from District Seven’s fate as she woke up naked tied to a tree and gagged. Astrid’s blood turned to ice as she realized what was going to happen to her.

Grayson twirled his knife tauntingly in front of her as her eyes widened in horror and she attempted to escape. 

The TV screen went dark. Stoick had closed the television.

“That sadistic asshole,” Ruffnut hissed.

Fishlegs ran to the bathroom.

“Oh dear,” Ollana brought her hands to her mouth. “I hope they won’t stay on them for too long. This is giving me flashbacks to last year’s cannibal. I had to get a therapy dog just to feel better. It’s the cutest thing!”

“Are you kidding me,” Snotlout said fuming. “That’s what you’re thinking when you see this!” 

At her bug eyed expression that showed no comprehension, he stood up and stomped to where she sat.

Snotlout yelled. “This is not okay! Are you brainwashed? How can you not see what you’re doing! These are real people!” Tuffnut dragged him out of the room. “She’s getting tortured because of you fuckwits and you’re thinking of your dog!”

Ollana huffed. “Why, I never!” She turned to Gobber as if to find some sympathy from him. “The tribute is the one torturing her, how can he blame the Capitol?” _How can he blame me?_ Astrid’s lip curled.

“Who put them in an arena to kill each other?” Gobber simply responded, tired of playing nice with the shallow woman.

***

Day Six was slow with nothing new happening except Percy adjusting to being part of the hunted and not the hunter. The shots would flicker between Annie gathering berries to eat and sleeping in her tree, the Careers leaving the cliff to hunt for Percy, Grayson torturing the District Three girl for information on where her partner is and the boy from District Three and District Eight’s girl doing their own thing. 

There was a silent mutual agreement between Ollana and the rest of them to ignore each other. The Dragon Riders mostly played board games while the reality show played on mute in the background. Only being turned on when Stoick saw his daughter on screen. It was easier to ignore what Grayson was doing if they couldn’t hear the screams.

Day Seven came with the boom of the cannon as the girl from District Seven died to the relief of everyone in the room. At least she isn’t being tortured any longer by a boy she went to school with. It was a success, Astrid told herself, Annie was still alive. That was all that mattered.

***

“As you all know,” Caesar began. “When the number of tributes are down to eight, we get a special look into the home life of our tributes.”

“The interviews!” Fishlegs looked close to crying. “They never came here to do them!”

“You didn’t think they’d come here, did you?” Ollana said, shocked.

“Of course we did,” Ruffnut said. “Who else would represent Annie’s family other than her father and us her friends.”

Astrid tried not to think about how bad of friends they’ve been to Annie.

“Ruffnut,” Stoick sat in his chair. “Most of Panem doesn’t know anything about the world outside of their country. They live in a little bubble and as far as they are concerned, they are the only people left in the world. What do you think would happen if citizens of Europe took an interview that went nationwide?”

Ollana looked awkward. Astrid suddenly wondered if she’d been aware of the world beyond Panem before she was assigned with them or if she just signed an NDA and swore not to speak of what she learned here.

“I was assigned as a dignitary there to see if they could be convinced to join the new UN that we finally finished setting up. They could not. Then I met Valka who had been in the Capitol on a trip and well,” he faltered. “Annie happened.”

Gobber put a hand on his shoulder.

“I was demoted for compromising the mission. I was lucky I was able to take   
Annie when I left. They didn’t want her to leave Panem as she was a citizen of their nation. They made few demands to let her go in my custody without a legal battle that I didn’t think much of at the time. I didn’t know any better because well, we knew nothing about Panem,” he chuckled. “Turns out they were biding their time. Their president is a real piece of work.”

“My granddaughter has always been the stubborn sort,” Mayor Cresta said. _Annie’s grandfather!_ Astrid never thought she’d meet him even as she often wondered what he was like when they were younger. “Very smart. I always knew she’d go far in life so I sent her to the Capitol for school since young. Her mother’s daughter in every way. From her looks, her brain and her heart.”

“I guess they need to give an excuse for why she isn’t in District Four more than a few weeks a year,” Fishlegs said, weakly.

“But the rest is completely true,” Gobber chuckled. “Aye, she’s got her mother’s looks and from what Stoick’s told me, everything else. For the best really.”

The twins laughed loudly at that and Snotlout attempted to hide his chuckles.

Stoick gave Gobber an annoyed glance.

“I would remind you of all the times you’ve said that she’s inherited my stubborn nature,” he said drily.

“I was sorry to hear that she was no longer with us,” the interviewer replied. “Would you mind terribly to tell us what led to Annie’s mother’s passing?”

“Childbirth,” he said simply. “Unfortunately, the father was a rake that she never named before her death.”

“You decrepit old liar!” Stoick banged his fist on the table loudly. 

“Still at war with the old man then,” Gobber probed.

“I haven’t seen him since Annie was a baby,” he snarled. “Is this the shit he’s been feeding my daughter when she stayed with him?”

“It’s for the best,” Annie’s grandfather looked straight into the camera and at Stoick. “He never deserved my girls.”

“Bastard,” he growled.

“He’s wrong, Mr. Haddock,” Astrid attempted to console him. He and Annie might’ve had their problems but she never doubted that they loved each other. Annie looked up to him so much.

“If you could talk to Annie right now, what would you tell her?” She purred, looking up to him with doe eyes.

“She’s got the hots for Annie’s grandpa!” Tuffnut exclaimed before he fell into a laughing fit. Snotlout began giggling like a nine year old over a fart joke.

The old man, clearly thrown off by the visible interest, took a step away from her awkwardly.

“I’d tell her that I love her and to just stay strong for just a bit longer. One more push, it's almost over,” he said with a tone of finality that those in positions of leadership did so well.

It went on to show an interview of a girl called Pearl who clearly didn’t know Annie yet called herself her best friend. She proclaimed that they’d been friends since they were five, Annie apparently dreamed of becoming an artist one day and she’s been in love with Finnick Odair since he’s won his games.

_It’s lies_ , she wanted to yell. _All lies!_ This Pearl probably never even met Annie! She never went to District Four until she was twelve, Annie wanted to become a mechanic and was traumatized by Finnick’s Hunger Games! 

It was a relief when the interviews ended. Watching the giant lie they were making of Annie’s life was getting to her. After the Capitol Anthem played, they went back to their usual view of the forest and phoney feeling of calm that came with being in nature away from technology.

Annie sat in her tree picking at her nails when it happened. The ground began to shake harder than it had previously and while she tried to hold onto the trunk, a branch from high above fell two inches away from her face, shocking her into letting go. Like in slow motion, they watched Annie fall off her branch with a scream. 

It was a long fall of almost 25 feet that made Astrid wince. Annie fell unconscious as the shaking continued.

The shot changed to the girl from District Eight holding onto a trunk while sitting on the ground and Astrid wanted to shout _Go back! Go back!_

The earthquake finally ended and all went back to normal as if it never happened. _Did they just want to make Annie fall,_ she raged.

She laid there unconscious, lips slightly open and face staring up to the sky. Annie looked like Snow White with her brown locks falling around her like a halo standing out against the green of the grass. The sun shining down, making certain locks reflect a metallic green and giving her skin a certain glow. 

For Astrid, it was one of those moments where everything pauses. Then, Annie’s eyelashes fluttered open and it ended. She raised a hand to the back of her head and groaned in pain. She sat up slowly trying to gather her bearings and leaned against the thick trunk of the tree.

“There she is!” yelled Sadie.

Annie’s head snapped up. 

No. 

The shot zoomed in on Sadie, Maximus and Amity spotting her.

This was why they had made the earthquake happen. They wanted to lead the Careers to Annie “naturally”. They heard her fall and went searching in the direction of the scream.

“Get up, Annie,” she muttered, eyes locked to the screen. “Run.”

As if she heard her, Annie grabbed one of the water bottles and made a run for it. The shot followed Annie and then switched to the careers giving the Hunger Games that highly sought after scene from action movies. A high stakes chase.

She ran as quickly as she could between trees, jumping over fallen branches and big rocks, ducking under low hanging branches, keeping well ahead of them. They had learnt their lesson since last seeing her and kept their mouths muzzled so that she doesn’t have as accurate an idea of where they are. Then she heard the rusting of the trees ahead of her and she stopped, looking in every direction, an animal caught in a trap.

The camera switched to Percy who had also heard the scream and was looking to get an easy kill. Maybe if he had known that it was Annie, he would have gone to ally with her and not to attack her but Astrid will never know.

Due to her small size, she quickly managed to hide in a large, conveniently hollow bush, getting the leaves to cover her just in time. 

_She’s breathing too loudly. Hold your breath, Annie!_

The rustling became louder and Annie covered her mouth with her hands in an effort to muffle her breathing. Percy came out. Her eyes widened but before she could say anything, the Careers made their presence known.

Annie didn’t come out of her bushes. Astrid realized that the Careers had a new target in the boy who killed one of their own before the agreed upon time. They had forgotten all about Annie.

At the place of running, Percy decided to stand his ground and fight. Stoick shook his head in disapproval. Astrid could understand why. It was three against one. It was clear from the start that he was the better fighter of the four of them but they were good too. He did alright at first, stabbing Maximus in the side and holding off Amity but Annie was too terrified, too perilized to help him or warn him of the coming blow. Sadie was behind him, wielding her axe, and in one clean blow, his head came away from his body, falling to the floor and rolling closer and closer to Annie in the bush.

Astrid could see her struggle not to scream as her district partner’s severed head stared up at her.

“Don’t move, Annie,” Snotlout begged. 

She didn’t. She seemed frozen.

“Close your eyes, girl,” Stoick commanded softly. But she was stuck in an eternal stare off with a dead boy.

Amity stabbed his twitching body a few times.

“That’s for Dulce,” she said as she spit on the ground. The cannon went off and there were seven people left in the game. She and Sadie helped Maximus lean against a tree before going in their backpack for bandages. They stayed there for what felt like an hour. 

Astrid just wanted to yell _leave, already!_

A parachute came by with a needle for Maximus’ injury, they stabbed him with it near the injured area and bandaged it. After he felt well enough to walk when holding onto someone as a crutch, they left.

Annie stayed. She stayed hidden in the bush staring at Percy’s glassy eyes. She couldn’t seem to move or blink. She stayed like that for hours.

“Is she going into a panic attack,” Fishlegs asked, panicking.

Annie finally twitched. She crawled on her hands and knees to Percy’s head and slowly she placed a finger on his cheek. As soon as she touched it, she flinched back as if repelled. Annie scrambled backwards until she bumped into a tree and her face crumpled. She began sobbing loudly like a child as she rocked back and forth on her knees.

Watching this felt like watching a leaked sex tape. Pornographic, invasive and just wrong. She wanted to look away but she couldn’t. 

Astrid watched, unable to draw breath, as Annie sobbed and broke down. The twins’ faces were pale as they held each other’s hands in a brief moment of sibling solidarity in the face of something heartbreaking. Snotlout fled the room. Stoick leaned his head against his hands. He couldn’t watch this.

_It must be hard to be helpless when your daughter is like this,_ Astrid thought distantly.

They switched to the Careers after a while. Astrid suspected Annie’s crying became boring to the Capitol or it made them uncomfortable. It clearly made Ollana uneasy. She could see why. Annie was at her most raw and vulnerable. It was too much. 

The sky was a stormy grey and it rained when the Berk gang left Annie’s house. Fitting.

***  
By Day Ten, they realized that there was something more going on with Annie other than her mourning someone who was clearly more than just an ally but an actual friend. 

Annie just wandered in a daze as she had since she stopped crying. She automatically did things like drinking water and sleeping but she was clearly not all there in the head. You could see it in her eyes. She was too skinny and her skin was sickly and sallow. It was concerning. 

Caesar Flickerman had an interview with District Eight’s mentor and they spoke briefly of Annie and she wanted nothing more than to reach through the screen and tell him exactly where to shove it when he referred to her as “the mad one”. 

As if Sadie and Grayson are saner than her. At least she wasn’t a psycho, she was just… struggling.

They were right to worry because Grayson found Annie. Everyone in the living room froze. He found her and she didn’t make any move to escape or even seem to care.

Astrid had lost most of that already small glimmer of faith that Annie would somehow be okay sometime around day nine. 

She was sure that this time Annie wouldn’t get out of it. Annie would die because Annie had given up. She wanted to die. 

And Annie always does the extreme, of course she found one of the most vicious killers to do it for her.

How are you, Annie?” Grayson asked silkily as he moved closer to her, sword still dirty with dry blood. _Just make it quick, please I’m begging you._

“Those of you who don’t want to see this, leave now.” Gobber commanded. He didn’t look away from the screen and didn’t bother to try to convince them more then that. He had too much on his plate at the moment.

No one left. 

They couldn’t abandon Annie here. Not now. Not again.

“I’m so glad that you’ve lasted until now. I was almost afraid that somebody would kill you off before we got to spend any time together…”

“No,” Stoick let out a tortured groan. “Not this…” he begged.

“But you look intact.” He dragged his sword across her chest, cutting straight through her jacket and revealing a bit of her chest. A thin line of red appeared on her skin.

Annie just looked at him, eyes dead.

“Physically at least.” 

That’s when the camera switched to the girl from District Eight.

“What the hell,” Astrid cried. “Go back! Go back!”

Was this their method to avoid showing sexual assault? Because they all knew what this was leading up to.

“She’s there,” Ruffnut hurried to say. Astrid didn’t understand what she meant at first. “Astrid, she’s there with them.”

The shot changed to show from high in the tree the girl from District Eight was sitting on as she stared wide eyed as Grayson taunted Annie with what he’ll be doing to her body before he killed her.

District Eight took out her blowgun, dipped the darts inside some ziplock bag full of crushed flowers and some juice and aimed.

Grayson felt his neck and seconds later, his eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground unconscious.

“Yes,” Snotlout jumped to his feet.

The girl from District Eight, unexpectedly ruthless, quickly climbed down from her tree. She kept her blowgun at the ready to shoot Annie but Annie, ripped shirt and slashed chest, just kept staring at Grayson’s body on the ground.

District Eight took Grayson’s sword and stabbed him with it multiple times.

She couldn’t lie. She felt some pleasure at seeing this particular person die. She was sure that after the Hunger Games, she would never look at herself the same. Here she was wishing real people in mortal peril, deathlet them all die.

The girl looked at Annie who still didn’t bother looking at her and cautiously took Grayson’s things — backpack and sword — and ran.

“That girl was,” Fishlegs started.

“A godsend.” Stoick interrupted.

They nodded in agreement. She was proof that you could still do good in the Hunger Games. The Capitol may try to take away their humanity but human kindness can be found anywhere even in the darkest of places.

“I’m hungry,” Annie noticed softly as she placed her hands on her stomach.

_I bet you are._ She hadn’t eaten since Percy died having not had the time to grab her backpack in the rush. She hadn’t felt like expelling the effort with gathering food like berries so she didn’t.

“She needs to eat. If she doesn’t, she’ll be too weak to fight,” Gobber said. No one bothered to say the obvious _would she even fight?_

As if an answer from God, a silver parachute landed at her feet. She opened it and found hot stew and a long bandage. Annie’s stomach growled but she didn’t immediately start eating in a daze. Instead, for the first time, they saw a hint of alertness in her eyes as she looked for something in the cylinder.

Annie took out a note. There couldn’t be more than one or two sentences on that piece of paper but Annie pressed it to her lips like a most cherished heirloom. 

“Thank you, Finnick,” she whispered.

“So she really likes this guy,” Fishlegs looked down to his feet. 

“Don’t worry. we’ll find you a girlfriend, Legs!” Ruffnut wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Annie stood up and a few words from a… friend already made all the difference. While she wasn’t back to normal she was more aware of what’s going on around her than before. Astrid just hoped it would last.

***

Day Eleven started off with the biggest earthquake since the games began. The Earth shaked and groaned, the wooden houses fell apart like houses of cards and the camera had a hard time filming.

“Seriously,” Astrid cried.

“How many more earthquakes are they going to simulate,” Fishlegs exclaimed.

Thankfully, Annie hadn’t been up a tree and she simply hurried over and hugged the bottom of the tree trunk tightly with both her arms and legs around it like a koala.

“Good girl,” Gobber murmured.

Ollana’s phone started ringing. They looked at her. Was she really going to take this now? 

“Sorry,” she cried in a hushed tone with a sheepish smile. Apparently she was.

They watched and waited as the shot switched to the remaining Careers attempts to hold onto something fixed, then to the boy from District Three.

“Oh my god,” Ollana cried out. “I can’t believe it!”

_Is she for real?_

“And they never warned you or anything,” Ollana walked back into the living room to annoyed glances that she didn’t bother noticing. “One second, Gemma.” She put the phone on mute.

“This is a real earthquake,” she freaked out.

“What do you mean,” Stoick growled. “A real earthquake?”

“Apparently when making the simulated version, they caused something to destabilize,” she wrung her hands together as she paced. “And it caused a real earthquake!”

That was somehow even worse. This earthquake wouldn’t just stop when it caused enough drama. It didn’t care about drama! 

She watched rocks crumble from the cliff. Thank god, Annie was on the other side of the forest.

“Look on the bright side,” Fisglegs murmured as if reading her mind. She looked at him incredulously. _There’s a bright side?_ “It might just pass with nothing being forced to happen.”

“The bright side,” Ollana cried. “My home is stuck in an earthquake!”

Astrid sent Ruffnut a dry look before her eyes widened and she turned away. That was something she used to do with Annie. They’d share a dry look that they reserved for when Snotlout and the twins did something stupid. It was their thing.

“There hasn’t been an earthquake in 80 years,” Ollana squeaked. “My sister doesn’t know what to do and her baby won’t stop crying!”

“Tell your friend to grab her baby and find a hard surface like a table or a bed to hide under,” Stoick immediately commanded.

Ollana shakily repeated his words to her friend.

The earthquake continued for almost an hour. It seems the Gamemakers were a little busy with the earthquake themselves as nobody was bothering to switch cameras. Caesar Flickerman said in a fearful voice that they were having technical difficulties. The mood in the living room was tense. Ollana was still trying to help her sister through her first earthquake and they didn’t know how any of the tributes were doing as the shot was stuck on the cliff. It shook and water spilled over as big boulders fell from the cliff. And finally things calmed as the world went still once more.

They slumped in their seats. 

“It’s over,” Snotlout raised his hand to cover his eyes as he sunk into his seat in relief.

But he spoke too soon.

Then water sprayed out of the side of the impressive rockface that began crumbling and the dam burst.

“Oh my god,” Ruffnut whispered, eyes wide. Like a giant wave, it stopped for no man. The trees collapsed under the weight of the water and finally the camera was overtaken. Things went black for five seconds.

“Annie,” Stoick whispered.

“Not to worry everybody, we’re back,” Caesar said weakly over a microphone. “Everything is back to normal.”

They were then given a different shot of Annie climbing up a tree with purpose. It switched quickly to the girl from District Eight as the wave took her and swallowed her whole and soon a cannon went off.

BOOM!

The careers were shown doing some type of doggy paddle, Maximus particularly struggling with his injury. He drowned in the middle of a puddle of red water. 

BOOM!

“Can’t they swim?” Astrid asked.

“No district has access to pools of water except for District Four. It’s the fishing district after all.” Ollana informed them.

Annie had been one of the best swimmers in their elementary school. Astrid had been shocked and more than a little bit jealous at the time that Annie was better at a sport than her, even if it was only swimming. Now she hoped that it would be what saved her. 

The camera finally returned to Annie. It panned out to show the water wave reaching her and her response… appeared to be not to do much. _Wake up!_

Astrid watched as the water wave washed towards Annie and she let herself be swept away by it. 

“Swim, Annie.” Snotlout angrily shouted. “Do something!”

Stoick’s face crumpled up; he looked unable to speak as his daughter let herself die without struggle.

The camera switched to show a wide shot of the arena filling up with water like a giant fishbowl and the tributes panicking even more. As the water settled, they struggled to get away as the water had pushed them all to the same area. The camera finally showed Annie again. Astrid’s breath caught in her throat.

“She’s floating,” she breathed.

Annie let the water move her as she gracefully floated on her back, doing small hand movements to stay afloat.

The other tributes could see her ease at swimming and District Three attempted to use her as a life ring. Astrid watched as he tried to onto her ankle, so that she’d pull him up with her, and Annie just dropped her weight dead on him to make him let go and gracefully floated away. 

District Three was the next to go under and Annie didn’t even flinch as the cannon boomed and was then quickly followed by another.

Sadie had apparently decided that the best way to get out of this was to kill the other tributes left before she herself drowned. She doggy paddled over to Amity and held her under until she stopped struggling. 

There was only Annie and Sadie left in the arena. 

Sadie tried to doggy paddle over to Annie but she simply didn’t have the skill necessary. She was too frustrated and her movements too jerky for her to stay afloat. Sadie screamed in frustration. She attempted to hold onto a large broken branch but it didn’t help her much. Finally, she lost the fight to exhaustion.

BOOM!

Astrid could finally breathe. Annie was the last one swimming. 

A smile overtook her face. She could hear Stoick let out a sob but she couldn’t look away from Annie swimming as if nothing had happened.

Caesar Flickerman’s voice boomed, “May I present the victor of the 70th Hunger Games, Annie Cresta!”

_Annie was coming home!_

***

“Mom! Mom!” Astrid yelled.

“Astrid, you’re home,” Zephyr walked down the stairs. She looked surprised by what she saw. “And you’re happy.”

Astrid jumped into her mother’s arms. She hugged her as tightly as she had done as a child before it became embarrassing. 

“Annie is coming home!” she said.

“Honey,” Zephyr said gently, tucking a piece of her daughter’s hair. “We’ve talked about this. She might be doing well in there but that doesn’t mean…” 

Astrid interrupted. “You don’t understand! She won! It’s over now!”

“It’s… over?” Zephyr hesitated.

“Annie’s finally safe!”

***

“Astrid! You’re back.” Heather’s eyes widened. Apparently she had forgiven her during her time out of school. “We didn’t expect you guys to come back for another two week at least.”

“The games usually last about two weeks, isn’t that a bit long?” Astrid sat at her desk while smiling. She was still high on Annie’s win two days later.

“We thought you would need some time off after watching Annie,” she faltered and then spoke in a whisper the dreaded word. “Die. It was very brave of you to force yourself to watch that.”

Astrid relaxed and almost smugly said, “She’s not dead.”

“But everyone’s been saying she’s dead or as good as dead.” Heather pressed her hand to her mouth. “We held a memorial for her in the student auditorium and people have made her locker a shrine and put cards and flowers on it.”

“Well, you’re going to have to take that down because Annie’s going to need her locker when she comes back to school.”

“But how is she still alive,” Heather pressed. “Were they able to get her out of Panem or something because she’s not _really_ from there?”

“No.” Astrid sighed. _She wasn’t getting it._ “Look, I can’t tell you much but the Hunger Games is a competition show where people kill each other so someone has to win.”

“You don’t mean…” Heather’s jaw dropped.

“Annie won.”

“So you’re saying she killed people.” Heather’s nose scrunched up in horror.

“No!” Astrid protested. “Not really. Well, there was one…”

She knows Heather, they’ve been friends for three years and right now she’s freaking out.

“But she had no choice!” Heather didn’t look convinced. In fact, she just looked scared that Astrid did believe that.

_Why doesn’t she get it?_

_Annie did what she had to do to come home._

_To us._

***

Astrid walked to Annie’s house to watch Capitol TV with the rest of the Dragon Riders for the last time. Ollana had explained that there was a final exit interview where they went over the games with the Victor and then it was over and the tribute went home.

When Annie comes home, she’ll come home to friends who will be there for her while she recuperates. Friends who finally understand the horrors she’s seen since young and what she’s gone through. Astrid planned to be there for her this time. 

The Dragon Riders had banded together once more for Annie. They’ll finally be back to normal once she’s back.

They arrived to a small party celebrating Annie’s survival. Gobber, Stoick, Ollana and even Spitelout had opened the good champagne and we’re laughing wholeheartedly. It was an odd combination of people getting along. Spitelout and Stoick may be brothers and living near each other but they spend most of their time together arguing. Ollana, the vapid Capitolite with delicate manners you wouldn’t think could get along with someone as brash as Spitelout, was flirting with him! 

Snotlout looked horrified.

“She better not become my new step-mom.” he muttered. The twins smiled mischievously behind him. A new source of teasing material.

Said woman put the usual foot in the mouth.

“I’m so happy that your daughter won,” Ollana turned to Stoick, smiling. “After spending so much time here, I can’t help but feel as if I know her myself. It would have been a shame if she died!”

This would have warranted an eye roll at least before. But… she was basically a puppy who peed on the carpet because she doesn’t know any better.

“Good thing I was able to get some time off for this.” Spitelout told Stoick awkwardly. “Sorry I couldn’t before.” He should be. The man couldn’t bring himself to support Stoick when his only niece was in mortal danger but he came to the party for her survival. “It was just hard.”

Astrid frowned harder at that. Yes, it had been hard but they had forced themselves to watch. To be there for Annie. He should’ve been there for his brother. Like Gobber was. Just as she was about to go and give him an earful, someone stopped her.

“Dad has PTSD.” Snotlout said quietly. “From his time on the frontline before he met mom. He wouldn’t be able to handle it. Watching kids kill kids.” _Or someone murdering Annie before his eyes._

Her eyes darted from son to father. She nodded in understanding and they went to speak to Gobber.

The interview began with the Capitol Anthem and she rejoiced on the inside that it would be the last time she’d have to hear it.

It began with Caesar hyping Annie up as the 70th Victor of the Hunger Games. The Capitol audience was on the edge of their seats by the end of his speech and then Annie came on, holding Finnick Odair’s arm tightly.

She looked healthy. In fact, she looked like herself again as she had before the whole damn mess that was the Hunger Games. In under a week, they were able to get rid of the whole skeleton thinness that she radiated in the last few days and her skin was back to that golden tone. Even the color changing hair was gone. It was now chestnut brown under every light. 

She was wearing a cute dark green lace dress. It showed off curves though lost to starvation and had a classy v neck before flaring down into a big, fluffy high low skirt. It was the type of dress that she could see Annie wearing to prom because it was much more her. Gone were the mysterious and enticing costumes that she wore before the games. She looked all the better for it.

“Well, just look at your fans!” Caesar exclaimed, waving a hand in the direction of the audience. “They’re so excited. I’m jealous, they don’t get like this for me!” He huffed.

Annie forced a smile as she turned to the camera. And well, the audience. She looked skittish as if she was holding back from running away. The crowd's cheers intensified.

“Don’t be. They may love the guests but this show would be nothing without you. Victor’s come and go but you’re here forever.” Finnick purred. Could the cheers get any louder? Apparently, they can.

“Oh. He’s the boyfriend you were talking about.” Spitelout told Gobber. The groans of the boys in the room intensified. “You’re right. Very pretty.”

“So pretty,” Ollana sighed dreamily.

“Finnick, thank you for being with us here tonight. We always love to have you,” the host replied.

Many women in the audience could be heard yelling “Marry me!” Some looked in their forties. Where is their pride, Astrid thought in frustration.

“No problem. It’s all thanks to Annie that I’m here though. She let me hijack her interview tonight because I wanted to get one last look at the most beautiful faces of the Capitol before going home.” He beamed at the audience. Someone fainted. The rest of the audience just about lost their minds.

Tuffnut snorted at the audience's reaction to Finnick.

“He would probably be a star if he lived here.”

“He certainly knows how to work an audience.” Ruffnut agreed with her brother.

Annie just clenched her arms tighter round Finnick’s as if he was a stress ball. 

“It’s a bit strange that Finnick is in the interview at all. Not that it’s a bad thing, I love him!’ The woman hurried to say as if they’d kill her for speaking ill of Finnick. _Someone’s clearly in his fan club._ “But it’s supposed to be all about the Victor and her time in the arena.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Gobber said. “He’s here to support her so that she doesn’t do this alone.”

_At least he’s good for something._ Astrid thought meanly.

They watched as Caesar and Finnick exchanged wit and Finnick answered any questions for Annie. That horrible vacant look from the games was back and she was not paying attention to the interview at all. Caesar and Finnick clearly noticed but pretended not to.

“Shit.” Spitelout said. They turned to him. “She clearly has symptoms of PTSD. Did none of you realize this?” They looked at each other awkwardly. _They knew something was up. They just didn’t know what._ “Stoick, you’re going to have to sign her up for therapy.”

“You know they won’t let me.” Stoick replied tiredly. The earlier joy of his daughter’s survival is gone as he remembers the price for it. The steep price of twenty three other childrens’ lives and Annie’s own mental well being.

Soon, they began the recap of Annie’s Hunger Games with the Reaping. They watched Annie jump as her name was called by her escort on the large screen in front of her. The camera zoomed in as if to show us exactly how these games have traumatized her. 

The filmmakers had also gotten a good shot of her grandfather, the mayor, reacting to it as it happened. The dismayed expression on his face said everything. It then showed Percy volunteering and the crowd cheered some more. Astrid wondered if they even remembered he was dead.

The footage moved on to the chariot ride and the sheer amount of skin Annie was showing made Spitelout almost spit out his beer.

“You okay, dad?” Snotlout called, an amused smile on his face, pretty much desensitized at this point. He was still angry by what they put Annie into, don’t get her wrong but he’s had a while to get used to it.

“Yeah.” His father choked out. “The hair thing is cool.”

The footage then went on to show the interview and the crowd cheered when they got to her suggestive comments about Finnick. 

“Anything to add to that?” Caesar questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“No comment.” Finnick winked, mischief glimmering in his eyes and a smug smile on his lips. _God, Astrid wanted to punch it off his face._

Snotlout went over to his father and murmured a few words in his ear. 

“Well, you guys continue without me.” Spitelout got up. “I’ll go get the pizza. Stoick, all dressed?” Stoick nodded.

“Can you get some pineapple for me?” Fishlegs piped up. They all turned their noses in disgust. “What?” He cried. “It’s really good!”

Spitelout left just as they got to the arena. The Bloodbath begun and they winced as they watched the mass murder all over again. 

It was cruel of the Capitol to make Annie relive this. But it would be foolish to think that the Capitol would do anything but take the most cruel option in any situation.

Annie slammed her eyes shut and started rocking her upper body back and forth. Finnick abandoned all pretenses of being there for the audience to comfort her. He bent close to her ear, placing a hand on her cheek, and whispered what Astrid imagined was words of encouragement. Annie looked down to her feet for the rest of the Bloodbath.

They watched as she relived her first kill and she flinched at the sight of them taunting the girl of District Eleven. Finnick wrapped his arm around her, distracting her from watching herself murder someone at just the right moment.

Then it got to when she left the group.

“What were you thinking when you planned to leave, Annie?” Caesar asked gently.

Surprisingly, Annie answered and didn’t make Finnick take over. “It was always the plan. Finnick and I had decided right from the beginning that I’d need to leave the Careers first. I knew it was time when I got the parachute. That was the signal.”

“But taking the water was all your idea.” Finnick interjected, squeezing her arm. “They could’ve easily died of thirst.”

Annie tensed under his arm at that.

They were just about to get Percy’s beheading but right before it showed on screen, Finnick tucked Annie’s face into his sleeve. She missed the entire thing as he whispered in her ear some more. Everyone in the living room relaxed. 

Meltdown diverted.

Caesar thankfully got the message to skip over discussing that moment in detail and the tape continued rolling.

It got to Grayson attacking her and she didn’t so much as flinch as the detached look from before returned in full force. 

“I’d kill him if he wasn’t already dead.” Astrid hissed.

Tuffnut agreed. “That dude was messed up.”

When the dam broke, Annie began rocking back and forth again, holding her hands against her ears as if to drown out any sound. Finnick held her so tightly, she was practically in his lap. Astrid wondered if he was doing that because he actually cared or just to hide her rocking from the audience. If he was, it was unsuccessful.

Astrid looked at the scene somberly, not even paying attention to the grand finale. Once Annie got home, they’d take care of her. Help her recover. This would stop.

Finally, she was announced the victor and the footage ended. It was clear that Annie was in no state to continue the interview. Even with Finnick holding her hand.

Caesar made a few excuses about needing to end the interview early because Annie needed to get ready for a banquet in her honour. However before she could leave, first she needed to be crowned.

They watched as President Snow, the man responsible for this madness and the one who had orchestrated Annie’s living situation, placed a crown lightly on top of her chestnut hair.

“That snake.” Stoick growled, eyes narrowed. He looked very much like he wanted to reach through the screen and get Annie far away from the wretched man who had placed her in this game. 

“It’s almost over.” Annie told him in consolation.

She was ready for it to be over. She should’ve realized what Annie had a long time ago. They were never letting her go.  
***

It was taking too long.

A week after the interview, Annie was still not home. 

The Capitol was taking its sweet time returning her. From what Snotlout told them, Stoick has been making calls everyday to find out what’s the holdup. He’s been using all his connections with the UN just to harass the people on the line who really can’t do anything. 

Finally, Stoick called them over. _Finally!_ They’ll finally have a date for when she’s arriving.

But Gobber opened the door and instead of the happy relief that she was expecting to see upon his face, it was with a pained look that he welcomed them in.

A cold feeling rose up in Astrid’s chest.  
Stoick was sitting at his kitchen table just as miserable as he’d been before Annie’s victory. 

“Kids,” he started. “I know you were looking forward to Annie coming home but she contacted me on President Snow’s phone line. She’s decided to stay in Panem.”

“No.” Snotlout whispered.

“That’s not true. Annie wouldn’t choose this.” Astrid shook her head in denial.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Fishlegs whispered. “Why would she want to stay there?”

“I agree.” Stoick said grimly. “She wouldn’t.”

Gobber gave him a water bottle and sat beside him, radiating defeat.

“Isn’t there anything we can do? Can’t you force her to come home.” Astrid pleaded. “Get the UN involved.”

“Annie is eighteen. The universal age of being an adult.” Gobber said looking down. 

Stoick shook his head bitterly. “I can’t force her to do anything any more than I can force you. 

And the UN won’t start a war with Panem over one teenage girl.”  
They sat in silence around the kitchen table. Astrid realized that coming home was never an option for Annie. Not to the Capitol.

Annie Haddock was never meant to win the games. She was always meant to die in them from her very birth. Her survival was a humiliating defeat to the Capitol and that could not stand. Annie has always known that. Now they did too.


End file.
